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HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 



— 



HAVE YOU 
A STRONG WILL? 



HOW TO DEVELOP AND STRENGTHEN 
WILL POWER, MEMORY, OR ANY OTHER 
FACULTY OR ATTRIBUTE OF THE MIND BY 
THE EASY PROCESS OF AUTO-SUGGESTION 



BY 

CHARLES GODFREY LELAND 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
JOHN HERMAN RANDALL 




NEW YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

PUBLISHERS 



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COPYRIGHT, 1919 

BRENTANO'S 1 



THE -PLIMPTON -PRESS 
NORWOOD-MASS-U-S-A 



DEC -\ ^ 

U536718 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction to New Edition ix 

The Author's Preface xv 

Introduction xxi 

I. Attention and Interest 1 

II. Self-Suggestion 12 

III. Will Development 20 

IV. Forethought 37 

V. Wdll and Character 50 

VI. Suggestion and Instinct . 60 

VII. Memory Culture 69 

VIII. The Constructive Faculties 77 

IX. Fascination . . . . 82 

X. The Subliminal Self 101 

XI. Paracelsus 113 

XII. Last Words 121 



M S^mtoriam 


CHARLES GODFREY LELAND 


AUTHOR 


Died March 20, 1903 


At Florence, Italy 


Age 79 



INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION 

The appreciation of the reading public, especially of 
the more thoughtful type, is certainly due the Pub- 
lishers who have determined to bring out another edi- 
tion of this unusually suggestive and stimulating work 
on the Will by the gifted American author, Mr. Charles 
G. Leland, who died at Florence, Italy, March 20, 
1903, at the ripe age of 79 years. Through all these 
years and up to the very last, Mr. Leland was the 
earnest and indefatigable student of human problems, 
in all their various phases. 

His writings, ranging over a period of fully fifty 
years, deal with an almost incredible variety of sub- 
jects, and always in an illuminating and suggestive 
style. His mind, in many respects, resembles the 
profound, versatile, and discriminating mind of Samuel 
Butler whose works, neglected until quite recently, 
have of late become a veritable storehouse of treasure 
to many thoughtful readers. There was published 
a few years ago a biographical work embodying the 
memoirs of Mr. Leland, written and edited by his 
niece, Mrs. Pennell, which will be of special inter- 
est to all who desire first-hand information of this 
gifted man. 

His scholarly spirit, his wide range of learning, his 
deep and accurate knowledge of human nature, and 
especially, his genius for piercing through the externals, 

ix 



X INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION 

brushing aside the nonessentials and thus getting to 
the very heart of his subject, have given to all his 
writings a peculiar insight and an indescribable charm. 

After many years of study and research in England 
and on the Continent, the author had the opportunity 
to put his educational theories to the test before sep- 
arate classes of some two hundred children in the city 
of Philadelphia with remarkable success. As the re- 
sult of these "experiments," he published his well- 
known works on "Practical Education," and "Hints 
on Self -education," which reveal where his deeper 
interest lay and prepared the way for this later work 
on the Will. 

His practical experience as well as his profound 
studies had convinced him that, while the inner life 
of man contains of necessity all the secrets of per- 
sonal development and power, still for the vast ma- 
jority this inner and mysterious realm was as yet an 
undiscovered country. He realized that most people 
are living far below their possibilities of efficiency and 
of power through ignorance of how to use the faculties 
with which they have been endowed. He saw that 
however great one's knowledge of outer facts might 
be, the knowledge of Self and its resident forces was 
to most people a closed book. 

With this growing realization of the widespread 
ignorance on the part of men and women generally 
as to their own inner powers and as to any rational 
method of cultivating them — an ignorance that he 
clearly saw was limiting countless individuals every- 
where both mentally and morally — it is not strange 
that the author devoted the later years of his life to 
further experiments in, and writing on what might 



INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION xi 

be truly called the practise of Self-culture. He knew 
that what people needed was not simply the ideal or 
the theory, but the practical method of how to put 
the theory into practice and thus realize the ideal in 
one's own personal life. While not in the technical 
sense a professional psychologist, he has nevertheless 
succeeded in translating into common speech some of 
the most essential and fundamental truths and prin- 
ciples of psychology so that he who runs may read. 
The goal he keeps constantly before him is the practi- 
cal one, i.e, How can this principle be made most ef- 
fective in the development of the Self and its hidden 
powers? 

The author believes with Schopenhauer that the 
Will is the essential man, that it lies back of all else 
and determines all else. The true education of the 
Will, therefore, means the true education of the man. 
Only through the right development of the Will can 
a man achieve at length that highest of all the arts, — 
and the most difficult, — the art of Self-control. He 
believes that the supreme problem of human happi- 
ness can be truly solved only through the culture of 
the Will. "He who wills it sincerely can govern his 
Will, and he who can govern his Will is a thousand 
times more fortunate than if he could govern the world. 
For to govern the Will is to be without fear, superior 
and indifferent to all earthly follies and shams, idols, 
cants and delusions; it is to be lord of a thousand isles 
in the sea of life, and absolutely greater than any liv- 
ing mortal, as men exist. Small need has that man to 
heed what his birth or station in society may be, who 
has mastered himself with the iron will; for he who has 
conquered death and the devil need fear no shadows." 



xii INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION 

It is to be noted, however, that the author does not 
mean by "iron will" what we usually put into these 
words. He means rather, a Will that is emancipated 
through proper development from all limitations, a 
Will that operates freely and instinctively in the little 
as well as in the big crises of life, a Will that blends 
body with all its appetites and passions, mind with all 
its faculties and powers, and spirit with all its wondrous 
forces into one harmonious Whole, a Will that is 
"strong" simply because it knows itself for what it 
really is and what it can actually do, in the deep and 
central place it holds in the individual life. 

The method advocated by the author for attaining 
this high degree of Will-culture or Self-development is 
the sound psychological method of Auto-suggestion. 
As he explains it, it is found to be not a slow, laborious, 
painstaking method before which one might well be 
inclined to shrink back. As a matter of fact, it is its 
very simplicity that may cause many to feel that such 
a simple method can possess little or nothing of real 
value. But this would be to miss the whole truth of 
the book and its practical power. 

Modern psychology recognizes frankly today the 
tremendous and incalculable power exerted in our 
lives, both individual and collective, through Sugges- 
tion. There is no one who is immune to it, no one who 
escapes it. What we think, what we say, what we feel, 
what we do, — in short, what we are is, in the last 
analysis, chiefly due to this mighty power that is al- 
ways at work in our lives. Auto-suggestion is the 
means by which we take this wondrous power into our 
own hands and employ it towards ends that we our- 
selves select. It means letting one's own mind de- 



INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION xiii 

termine just what suggestions shall control one's 
thoughts and actions instead of leaving it to chance 
environment or accidental associations or casual con- 
versations or reckless impulses. The author has laid 
his hand on the great dynamic power of all life when 
he advocates Auto-suggestion as the method by which 
the results desired in Self-development can best be 
attained. This method has been demonstrated by 
psychology and proven in experience. 

The difficulty will He for most people, as already 
stated, in the very simplicity of the method. They 
will fail to make the progress in Self-development that 
they truly desire, not because the pathway is too hard, 
but because it is too easy. And thus they will only 
have themselves to blame if the wondrous powers that 
He resident in ah men and women, remain in them, 
latent and undeveloped. If one wiU but continue to 
persevere in the use of Auto-suggestion as the author 
has so clearly set it forth in the pages of this book, there 
is not the sHghtest shadow of doubt of his experiencing 
the results the author here promises. It is simply 
another appHcation of the old and universal law of 
Cause and Effect. The failures of Hfe are chiefly due 
to the fact that, while we all profess to be desirous of 
achieving the effect, there are very few who wiU make 
the necessary effort to estabHsh the only cause of which 
the desired effect can come. 

Mr. Leland does not write from the view-point of 
any particular cult, he represents no new school of 
thought as such. He has Hved widely and thought 
deeply and experimented scientifically with himself 
and with others, and the conclusions at which he ar- 
rives and the method of Self-development which he 



xiv INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION 

advocates are both sane and practical, to be tested as 
he so earnestly urges, by each one for himself. 

It is one of the hopeful signs of the times that a 
steadily increasing number of men and women every- 
where are searching eagerly for the light that will 
lead them towards the heights of Self-development 
which they but dimly descry in the distance. They 
realize vaguely that "man is greater than he knows," 
but what they crave most of all is the actual knowledge 
as to how they may best awaken and direct towards 
highest ends the powers and forces now lying latent 
within them. To all such this book will come not 
merely as an inspiration towards the heights beyond, 
but what is still better, as the clear revelation of the 
pathway by which alone the heights may be attained. 

John Herman Randall 

June, 1919 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

During the past few years the most serious part of 
the author's study and reflection has been devoted to 
the subjects discussed in this book. These, briefly 
stated, are as follows : Firstly, that all mental or cere- 
bral faculties can by direct scientific treatment be in- 
fluenced to what would have once been regarded as 
miraculous action, and which is even yet very little 
known or considered. Secondly, in development of 
this theory, and as confirmed by much practical and 
personal experience, that the Will can by very easy 
processes of training, or by aid of Auto-suggestion, 
be strengthened to any extent, and states of mind soon 
induced, which can be made by practice habitual. 
Thus, as a man can by means of opium produce sleep, 
so can he by a very simple experiment a few times re- 
peated — an experiment which I clearly describe and 
which has been tested and verified beyond all denial 
— cause himself to remain during the following day 
in a perfectly calm or cheerful state of mind ; and this 
condition may, by means of repetition and practice, 
be raised or varied to other states or conditions of a 
far more active or intelligent description. 

Thus, for illustration, I may say that within my own 
experience, I have by this process succeeded since my 
seventieth year in working all day far more assiduously, 
and without any sense of weariness or distaste for 
labour, than I ever did at any previous period of my 

XV 



xvi THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

life. And the reader need only try the extremely 
easy experiment, as I have described it, to satisfy 
himself that he can do the same, that he can continue 
it with growing strength ad infinitum, and that this 
power will unquestionably at some future time be 
employed with marvellous results in Education. For, 
beyond all question — since any human being can easily 
prove or disprove it by a few experiments — there is 
no method known by which inattention, heedlessness, 
or negligence in the young can be so promptly and 
thoroughly cured as by this; while, on the other hand, 
by assiduity Attention and Interest are even more 
easily awakened. It has indeed seemed to me, since 
I have devoted myself to the study of Education from 
this point of view, as if it had been like the Iron Castle 
in the Slavonian legend, unto which men had for 
centuries wended their way by a long and wearisome 
road of many miles, while there was all the time, un- 
seen and unknown, a very short and easy subterranean 
passage, by means of which the dwellers in the Schloss 
might have found their way to the town below, and to 
the world, in a few minutes. 

To this I have added a succinct account of what is, 
I believe, the easiest and most comprehensive Art of 
Memory ever conceived. There are on this subject 
more than five hundred works, all based, without ex- 
ception, on the Associative system, which may be de- 
scribed as a stream which runs with great rapidity for 
a very short time but is soon choked up. This, I 
believe, as a means applied to learning, was first 
published in my work, entitled Practical Education. 
In it the pupil is taught the direct method; that is, 
instead of remembering one thing by means of another, 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE - xvii 

to impress the image itself on the memory, and fre- 
quently revive it. This process soon becomes habitual 
and very easy. In from one year to eighteen months 
a pupil can by means of it accurately recall a lecture 
or sermon. It has the immediate advantage, over all 
the associate systems, of increasing and enlarging the 
scope and vigour of the memory, or indeed of the mind, 
so that it may truly bear as a motto, Vires acquirit 
eundo — "it gains in power as it runs along." 

Finally, I set forth a system of developing the 
Constructive Faculty — that which involves Ingenuity, 
Art, or manual making — as based on the teaching of 
the so-called Minor Arts to the young. The principle 
from which I proceed is that as the fruit is developed 
from the flower, all Technical Education should be 
anticipated or begun in children by practicing easy 
and congenial arts, such as light embroidery, wood- 
carving or repousse, by means of which they become 
familiar with the elements of more serious and sub- 
stantial work. Having found out by practical ex- 
perience, in teaching upwards of two thousand children 
for several years, that the practice of such easy work, 
or the development of the constructive faculty, invari- 
ably awakened the intellectual power or intelligence, 
I began to study the subject of the development 
of the mind in general. My first discovery after 
this was that Memory, whether mental, visual, or of 
any other kind, could, in connection with Art, be 
wonderfully improved, and to this in time came the 
consideration that the human Will, with all its mighty 
power and deep secrets, could be disciplined and di- 
rected, or controlled with as great care as the memory 
or the mechanical faculty. In a certain sense the three 



xviii THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

are one, and the reader who will take the pains — which 
are, I trust, not very great — to master the details of 
this book, will readily grasp it as a whole, and under- 
stand that its contents form a system of education, 
one from which the old as well as young may profit. 

It is worth noting that, were it for nervous invalids 
alone, or those who from various causes find it difficult 
to sleep, or apply the mind to work, this book would 
be of unquestionable value. In fact, even while writ- 
ing this chapter, a lady has called to thank me for the 
substantial benefit which she derived from my advice 
in this respect. And, mindful of the fact that At- 
tention and Unwearied Perseverance are most neces- 
sary to succeed in such processes as are here described, 
I have taken pains to show or explain how they may 
be rendered more attractive, tolerable, and habitual 
to the fickle or light-minded; this, too, being a sub- 
ject which has been very little considered from a 
practical point of view. 

But, above all things, I beg the reader, laying aside 
all prejudice or preconceived opinion, and neither be- 
lieving nor disbelieving what he reads, to simply try it 
— that is — to test in his own person to what degree he 
can influence his will, or bring about subsequent states 
of mind, by the very easy processes laid down. If I 
could hope that all opinion of my book would be ut- 
tered only by those who had thus put it to the test, I 
should be well assured as to its future. 

And also I beg all readers, and especially reviewers, 
to note that I advise that the auto-suggestive process, 
by aid of sleep, shall be discontinued as soon as the ex- 
perimenter begins to feel an increase in the power of 
the will; the whole object of the system being to ac- 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE xix 

quire a perfectly free clear Will as soon as possible. 
Great injustice was done, as regards the first edition of 
this work, by a very careless though eminent critic, 
who blamed the author for not having done what the 
latter had carefully recommended in his book. 

There are four stages of advance towards the truth: 
firstly, Disbelief; secondly, Doubt, which is, in fact, 
only a fond advance towards Disbelief; thirdly, 
Agnosticism, which is Doubt mingled with Inquiry; 
and, finally, pure and simple Inquiry or Search, with- 
out any preconceived opinion or feeling whatever. It 
is, I trust, only in the spirit of the latter, that I have 
written; therefore I say to the reader, Neither believe 
in nor disbelieve anything which I have said, but, as 
it is an easy thing to try, experiment for yourself, and 
judge by the result. In fact, as a satisfactory and con- 
clusive experiment will not require more time, and 
certainly not half the pains which most people would 
expend on reading a book, I shall be perfectly satisfied 
if any or all my critics will do so, and judge the system 
by the result. 



INTRODUCTION 

"Unto many Fortune comes while sleeping." — Latin Proverb. 

"Few know what is really going on in the world." 

— American Proverb. 

It is but a few years since it suddenly struck the gay 
world of comic dramatists and other literary wits, that 
the Nineteenth Century was drawing to an end, and, 
regarding it as an event, they began to make merry 
over it, at first in Paris, and then in London and New 
York, as the fin-de-siecle. Unto them it was the 
going-out of old fashions in small things, such as changes 
in dress, the growth of wealth, or "the mighty bicycle," 
with a very prevalent idea that things "are getting 
mixed" or "chequered," or the old conditions of life 
becoming strangely confused. And then men of more 
thought or intelligence, looking more deeply into it, 
began to consider that the phrase did in very truth ex- 
press far more serious facts. As in an old Norman 
tale, he who had entered as a jester or minstrel in comic 
garb, laid aside his disguise, and appeared as a wise 
counsellor or brave champion who had come to free 
the imprisoned emperor. 

For it began to be seen that this fin-de-siecle was de- 
veloping with startling rapidity changes of stupendous 
magnitude, which would ere long be seen "careering 
with thunder speed along," and that all the revolutions 
and reforms recorded in history were only feeble or 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

partial, scattered or small, compared to the world-wide 
unification of human interests, led by new lights, 
which has begun to manifest itself in every civilized 
country. That well-nigh every person of real culture 
or education, guided by pure science, has within a 
very few years advanced to a condition of liberal faith 
which would have been in my university days generally 
reprobated as "infidelity," is not to be denied, and the 
fact means, beyond all question, that according to its 
present rate of advance, in a very few years more, this 
reform will end in the annulling of innumerable tradi- 
tions, forms of faith, and methods. Upharrin is writ 
on the wall. 

More than this, is it not clear that Art and Romance, 
Poetry and Literature, as hitherto understood or felt, 
are either to utterly vanish before the stupendous ad- 
vances of science, or what is perhaps more probable, 
will, coalescing with it, take new forms, based on a 
general familiarity with all the old schools or types? 
A few years ago it seemed, as regarded all aesthetic 
creation, that man had exhausted the old models, and 
knew not where to look for new. Now the aim of Art 
is to interest or please, by gratifying the sense or taste 
for the beautiful or human genius in making; also to 
instruct and refine; and it is evident that Science is 
going to fulfill all these conditions on such a grand 
scale in so many new ways, that, when man shall be 
once engaged in them, all that once gratified him in the 
past will seem as childish things, to be put away before 
pursuits more worthy of manly dignity. If Art in all 
forms has of late been quiet, it has been because it has 
drawn back like the tiger in order to make the greater 
bound 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

One of the causes why some are laying aside all old 
spiritualism, romance, and sentiment, is that their reali- 
zation takes up too much time, and Science, which is 
the soul of business, seeks in all things brevity and di- 
rectness. It is probable that the phrase, "but to the 
point," has been oftener repeated during the past few 
years, than it ever was before, since Time begun, of 
which directness I shall have more to say anon. 

And this is the end to which these remarks on the 
fin-de-siecle were written, to lay stress upon the fact 
that with the year Nineteen Hundred we shall begin a 
century during which civilized mankind will attain its 
majority and become manly, doing that which is right 
as a man should, because it is right and for no other 
reason, and shunning wrong for as good cause. For 
while man is a child he behaves well, or misbehaves, for 
reasons such as the fear of punishment or hope of re- 
ward, but in a manly code no reasons are necessary but 
only a persuasion or conviction that anything is right 
or wrong-, and a principle which is as the earth unto a 
seed. 

For as the world is going on, or getting to be, it is 
very evident that as it is popularly said, "he who will 
tell a he will generally not hesitate to commit perjury," 
so he who cannot be really honest, per se, without being 
sustained by principle based only on tradition and the 
opinion of others, is a poor creature, whose morality or 
honesty is in fact merely theatrical, or acted, to satisfy 
certain conditions or exigencies from which he were 
better freed. 

This spirit of scientific directness, and economy of 
thought and trouble by making the principle of integ- 
rity the basis of all forms, and cutting all ethical 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

theories down to "be good because you ought" is rap- 
idly astonishing us with another marvellous fact which 
it illustrates, namely, that as in this axiom — as in man 
himself — there are latent undiscovered powers, so in a 
thousand other sayings, or things known to us all, used 
by us all, and regarded as common-place, there are as- 
tounding novelties and capacities as yet undreamed of. 
For, as very few moralists ever understood in full what 
is meant by the very much worn or hackneyed saying, 
"we ought to do what is right," so the world at large 
little suspects that such very desirable qualities as At- 
tention, Interest, Memory, and Ingenuity, have that 
within them which renders them far more attainable by 
man than has ever been supposed. Even the great 
problem of Happiness itself, as really being only one of 
a relative state of mind, may be solved or reached by 
some far simpler or more direct method than any 
thinker has ever suggested. 

It all depends on exertion of the Will. There are in 
this world a certain number of advanced thinkers who, 
if they knew how to develop the Will which exists in 
them, could bring this reform to pass in an incredibly 
short time. That is to say, they could place the doc- 
trine or religion of Honesty for its own sake so boldly 
and convincingly before the world that its future would 
be assured. Now the man who can develop his Will, 
has it in his power not only to control his moral nature 
to any extent, but also to call into action or realize very 
extraordinary states of mind, that is, faculties, talents, 
or abilities which he has never suspected to be within 
his reach. It is a stupendous thought; yes, one so 
great that from the beginning of time to the present day 
no sage or poet has ever grasped it in its full extent, 



INTRODUCTION XXV 

and yet it is a very literal truth, that there lie hidden 
within us all, as in a sealed-up spiritual casket, or like 
the bottled-up djinn in the Arab tale, innumerable 
Powers or Intelligences, some capable of bestowing 
peace or calm, others of giving Happiness, or inspiring 
creative genius, energy, and perseverance. All that 
Man has ever attributed to an Invisible World without, 
lies, in fact, within him, and the magic key which will 
confer the faculty of sight and the power to conquer is 
the Will 

It has always been granted that it is a marvellously 
good thing to have a strong will, or a determined or 
resolute mind, and great has been the writing thereon. 
I have by me the last book on the subject, in which the 
faculty is enthusiastically praised, and the reader is told 
through all the inflexions of sentiment, that he ought to 
assert his Will, to be vigorous in mind, et cetera, but un- 
fortunately the How to do it is utterly wanting. 

It will be generally admitted by all readers that this 
How to do it has been always sought in grandly heroic 
or sublimely vigorous methods of victory over self. The 
very idea of being resolute, brave, persevering, or stub- 
born, awakens in us all thoughts of conflict or dramatic 
self-conquering. But it may be far more effectively 
attained in a much easier way, even as the ant climbed 
to the top of the tree and gnawed away and brought 
down the golden fruit unto which the man could not 
rise. There are easy methods, and by far the most 
effective, of awakening the Will; methods within the 
reach of every one, and which if practiced, will lead on 
ad infinitum, to marvellous results. 

The following chapters will be devoted to setting 
forth, I trust clearly and explicitly, how by an ex- 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

tremely easy process, or processes, the will may be, by 
any person of ordinary intelligence and perseverance, 
awakened and developed to any extent, and with it 
many other faculties or states of mind. I can remem- 
ber once being told by a lady that she thought there 
ought to be erected in all great cities temples to the 
Will, so as to encourage mankind to develop the divine 
faculty. It has since occurred to me that an equal 
number of school-houses, however humble, in which the 
art of mastering the Will by easy processes seriatim 
should be taught, would be far more useful. Such a 
school-house is this work, and it is the hope of the 
author that all who enter, so to speak, or read it, will 
learn therefrom as much as he himself and others have 
done by studying its principles. 

To recapitulate or make clear in- brief what I intend, 
I would say Firstly, that the advanced thinkers at this 
end of the century, weary of all the old indirect methods 
of teaching Morality, are beginning to enquire, since 
Duty is an indispensable condition, whether it is not 
just as well to do what is right, because it is right, as 
for any other reason? Secondly, that this spirit of 
directness, the result of Evolution, is beginning to show 
itself in many other directions, as we may note by the 
great popularity of the answer to the question, "How 
not to worry," which is briefly, Dont! Thirdly, that 
enlightened by this spirit of scientific straightforward- 
ness, man is ceasing to seek for mental truth by means 
of roundabout metaphysical or conventional ethical 
methods (based on old traditions and mysticism), and 
is looking directly in himself, or materially, for what 
Immaterialism or Idealism has really never explained 
at all — his discoveries having been within a few years 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

much more valuable than all that a priori philosophy or 
psychology ever yielded since the beginning. And, 
finally, that the leading faculties or powers of the mind, 
such as Will, Memory, the Constructive faculty, and 
all which are subject to them, instead of being entirely 
mysterious "gifts," or inspirations bestowed on only a 
very few to any liberal extent, are in all, and may be 
developed grandly and richly by direct methods which 
are moreover extremely easy, and which are in accord- 
ance with the spirit of the age, being the legitimate 
results of Evolution and Science. 

And, that I may not be misunderstood, I would say 
that the doctrine of Duty agrees perfectly with every 
form of religion — a man may be Roman Catholic, 
Church of England, Presbyterian, Agnostic, or what he 
will; and, if a form aids him in the least to be sincerely 
honest, it would be a pity for him to be without it. 
Truly there are degrees in forms, and where I live in 
Italy I am sorry to see so many abuses or errors in 
them. But to know and do what is right, when under- 
stood, is recognizing God as nearly as man can know 
him, and to do this perfectly we require Will. It is 
the true Logos. 



HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

CHAPTER I 

ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

"To the fairies, Determination and Good- Will, all things are 
possible." — The Man of the Family, by C. Reid. 

It happened recently to me, as I write, to see one 
afternoon lying on the side walk in the Via Calzaioli 
in Florence what I thought was a common iron screw, 
about three inches in length, which looked as if it had 
been dropped by some workman. And recalling the 
superstition that it is lucky to find such an object, or 
a nail, I picked it up, when to my astonishment I 
found that it was a silver pencil case, but made to 
exactly resemble a screw. Hundreds of people had, 
perhaps, seen it, thought they knew all about it, or 
what it was, and then passed it by, little suspecting its 
real value. . 

There is an exact spiritual parallel for this incident 
or parable of the screw-pencil in innumerable ideas, at 
which well-nigh everybody in the hurrying stream of 
life has glanced, yet no one has ever examined, until 
someone with a poetic spirit of curiosity, or inspired 
by quaint superstition, pauses, picks one up, looks into 
it, and finds that it has ingenious use, and is far more 
than it appeared to be. Thus, if I declare that by spe- 
cial attention to a subject, earnestly turning it over and 
thinking deeply into it, very remarkable results may be 



2 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

produced, as regards result in knowledge, every human 
being will assent to it as the veriest truism ever uttered ; 
in the fullest belief that he or she assuredly knows all 
that 

Yet it was not until within a very few years that I 
discovered that this idea, which seemed so common- 
place, had within it mysteries and meanings which were 
stupendously original or remarkable. I found that 
there was a certain intensity or power of attention, far 
surpassing ordinary observation, which we may, if we 
will, summon up and force on ourselves, just as we can 
by special effort see or hear far better at times than 
usually. The Romans show by such a phrase as 
animum adjicere, and numerous proverbs and syno- 
nyms, that they had learned to bend their attention 
energetically. They were good listeners, therefore 
keen observers. 

Learning to control or strengthen the Will is closely 
allied to developing Attention and Interest, and for 
reasons which will soon be apparent, I will first con- 
sider the latter, since they constitute a preparation or 
basis for the former. And as preliminary, I will con- 
sider the popular or common error to the effect that 
everyone has allotted to him or to her just so much of 
the faculty of attention or interest as it has pleased 
Nature to give — the same being true as regards Mem- 
ory, Will, the Constructive or Artistic abilities, and so 
on — when in very truth and on the warrant of Ex- 
perience all may be increased ad infinitum. Therefore, 
we find ignorant men complacently explaining their in- 
difference to art and literature or culture on the ground 
that they take no interest in such subjects, as if in- 
terest were a special heaven-sent gift. Who has not 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 3 

heard the remark, "He or she takes such an interest in 
so many things — I wish that I could." Or, as I 
heard it very recently expressed, "It must be delight- 
ful to be able to interest one's self in something at any 
time." Which was much the same as the expression of 
the Pennsylvania German girl, " Ach Gott! I wisht I 
hat genius und could make a pudden!" 

No one can be expected to take an interest at once 
and by mere will in any subject, but where an earnest 
and serious Attention has been directed to it, Interest 
soon follows. Hence it comes that those who deliber- 
ately train themselves in Society after the precept 
enforced by all great writers of social maxims to listen 
politely and patiently, are invariably rewarded by ac- 
quiring at last shrewd intelligence, as is well known 
to diplomatists. That mere stolid patience subdues 
impatience sounds like a dull common-place saying, 
but it is a silver pencil disguised as an iron screw ; there 
is a deep subtlety hidden in it, if it be allowed 
with a little intelligence, forethought, and determination 
towards a purpose. Let us now consider the mechani- 
cal and easy processes by which attention may be 
awakened. 

According to Ed. von Hartmann, Attention is either 
spontaneous or reflex. The voluntary fixing our mind 
upon, or choosing an idea, image, or subject, is spon- 
taneous attention, but when the idea for some reason 
impresses itself upon us then we have enforced, or 
reflex attention. That is simply to say, there is active 
or passive observation — the things which we seek, or 
which come to us unsought. And the "seeking for," 
or spontaneous action can be materially aided and 
made persevering, if before we begin the search or set 



4 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

about devoting Attention to anything, we pause, as it 
were, to determine or resolve that we will be thorough, 
and not leave off until we shall have mastered it. For 
strange as it may seem, the doing this actually has in 
most cases a positive, and very often a remarkable 
result, as the reader may very easily verify for him- 
self. This Forethought is far more easily awakened, 
or exerted, than Attention itself, but it prepares it, 
just as Attention prepares Interest. 

Attention is closely allied to Memory; when we 
would give attention to a subject for continued con- 
sideration, we must "memorize" it, or it will vanish. 
Involuntary memory excited by different causes often 
compels us to attend to many subjects whether we will 
or not. Everyone has been haunted with images or 
ideas even unto being tormented by them; there are 
many instances in which the Imagination has given 
them objective form, and they have appeared visibly 
to the patient. These haunting ideas, disagreeable 
repetitions, or obstinate continuances, assume an in- 
credible variety of forms, and enter in many strange 
ways into life. Monomania, or the being possessed 
with one idea to the exclusion of others, is a form of 
overstrained attention, sustained by memory. It is 
enforced. 

Mere repetition of anything to almost anybody, will 
produce remarkable results; or a kind of Hypnotism 
causing the patient to yield to what becomes an 
irresistible power. Thus it is said that perpetual drop- 
ping will wear away stones. Dr. James R. Cocke in 
his "Hypnotism," in illustrating this, speaks of a man 
who did not want to sign a note, he knew that it was 
folly to do so, but yielded from having been "over per- 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 5 

suaded." I have read a story in which a man was thus 
simply talked into sacrificing his property. The great 
power latent in this form of suggestiveness is well 
known to knaves in America where it is most employed. 
This is the whole secret of the value of advertising. 
People yield to the mere repetition in time. Attention 
and Interest may in this way be self-induced from 
repetition. 

It is true that an image or idea may be often repeated 
to minds which do not think or reflect, without awaken- 
ing attention; per contra, the least degree of thought 
in a vast majority of cases forms a nucleus, or begin- 
ning, which may easily be increased to an indefinite ex- 
tent. A very little exercise of the Will, suffices in most 
cases to fix the attention on a subject, and how this 
can be done will be shown in another chapter. But in 
many cases Attention is attracted with little or no 
voluntary effort. On this fact is based the truth that 
when or where it is desired, Attention and Interest 
may be awakened with great ease by a simple process. 

It may be remarked on the subject of repetition of 
images or ideas, that a vast proportion of senseless 
superstitions, traditions, or customs, which no one can 
explain, originate in this way, and that in fact what we 
call habit (which ranks as second nature) is only an- 
other form or result of involuntary attention and the 
unconsciously giving a place in the memory to what 
we have heard. 

From the simple fact that even a man of plain com- 
mon-sense and strong will may be driven to sleepless- 
ness, or well-nigh to madness, by the haunting presence 
of some wretched trifle, some mere jingle or rhyme, or 
idle memory, we may infer that we have here a great 



6 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

power which must in some way be capable of being led 
to great or useful results by some very easy process. 
I once wrote a sketch, never completed, in which I 
depicted a man of culture who, having lost an old manu- 
script book which he had regarded in a light, semi- 
incredulous manner as a fetish, or amulet, on which his 
luck depended, began to be seriously concerned, and 
awakening to the fact, deliberately cultivated his alarm 
as a psychological study, till he found himself, even 
with his eyes wide open as an observer in terrible fear, 
or a semi-monomaniac. The recovery of his lost charm 
at once relieved him. This was a diversion of Atten- 
tion for a deliberate purpose, which might have been 
varied ad infinitum to procure very useful results. But 
I have myself known a man in the United States, who, 
having lost — he being an actor or performer — a cer- 
tain article of theatrical properties on which he be- 
lieved "luck" depended, lost all heart and hope, and 
fell into a decline, from which he never recovered. In 
this, as in all such cases, it was not so much convic- 
tion or reason which influenced the sufferer as the 
mere effect of Attention often awakened till it had 
become what is known as a fixed idea. 

A deliberate reflection on what I have here advanced 
can hardly fail to make it clear to any reader that if 
he really desires to take an interest in any subject, it is 
possible to do so, because Nature has placed in every 
mind vast capacity for attention or fixing ideas, and 
where the Attention is fixed, Interest, by equally easy 
process, may always be induced to follow. And note 
that these preliminary preparations should invariably 
be as elementary and easy as possible, this being a con- 
dition which it is impossible to exaggerate. In a vast 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 7 

majority of cases people who would fain be known as 
taking an interest in Art begin at the wrong end, or in 
the most difficult manner possible, by running through 
galleries where they only acquire a superficial knowl- 
edge of results, and learn at best how to talk showily 
about what they have skimmed. Now to this end a 
good article in a cyclopaedia, or a small treatise like that 
of Taine's "Esthetic" thoroughly read and re-read, 
till it be really mastered, and then verified by study of 
a very few good pictures in a single collection, will do 
more to awaken sincere interest than the loose ranging 
through all the exhibitions in the world. I have read 
in many novels thrilling descriptions of the effect and 
results when all the glories of the Louvre or Vatican 
first burst upon some impassioned and unsophisticated 
youth, who from that moment found himself an 
Artist — but I still maintain that it would have been 
a hundred times better for him had his Attention and 
Interest been previously attracted to a few pictures 
and his mind accustomed to reflect on them. 

Be the subject in which we would take an interest 
artistic or scientific, literary or social, the best way to 
begin herewith is to carefully read the simplest and 
easiest account of it which we can obtain, in order that 
we may know just exactly what it is, or its definition. 
And this done, let the student at once, while the mem- 
ory is fresh in mind, follow it up by other research or 
reading, observations, or inquiries, on the same subject, 
for three books read together on anything will profit 
more than a hundred at long intervals. In fact, a great 
deal of broken, irregular, or disjointed reading is often 
as much worse than none at all, as a little coherent 
study is advantageous. 



8 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

Many people would very willingly take an interest 
in many subjects if they knew how. It is a melancholy 
thing to see a man retired from business with literally 
nothing to do but fritter away his time on nothings 
when he might be employed at something absorbing 
and useful. But they hesitate to act because, as is the 
rule in life, they see everything from its most difficult 
and repulsive side. There is no man who could not 
easily take an intelligent interest in Art in some form, 
but I venture to say that a majority of even educated 
people who had never taken up the subject would be 
appalled at it in their secret hearts, or distrust its "use" 
or their own capacity to master it. Or again, many put 
no faith in easy manuals to begin with, believing, in 
their ignorance, that a mere collection of rudiments 
cannot have much in it. We are all surrounded by 
thousands of subjects in which we might all take an 
interest, and do good work, if we would, selecting one, 
give it a little attention, and by easy process proceed to 
learn it. As it is, in general society the man or woman 
who has any special pursuit, accomplishment, or real 
interest for leisure hours, beyond idle gossip and empty 
time-killing, is a great exception. And yet I sincerely 
believe that in perhaps a majority of cases there is a 
sincere desire to do something, which is killed by simple 
ignorance of the fact that with a very little trouble 
indeed interest in something is within the easy reach 
of all. 

I have dwelt on this subject that the reader may be 
induced to reflect on the fact, firstly, that if he wishes 
to learn how to develop his Will and strengthen it, it is 
absolutely necessary to take an interest in it. I beg him 
to consider how this art of acquiring attention and 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 9 

interest has been, or is, obscured in most minds, and 
the difficulties of acquiring it, exaggerated. Secondly, I 
would point out that the method or process for making 
a Will is so closely allied to that laid down for Atten- 
tion that it will seem like a deduction from it, both 
being allied to what may claim to be an original Art 
of Memory, to which I shall devote a chapter in its 
due place. 

For as I hope clearly to prove it is an easy matter 
to create a strong will, or strengthen that which we 
have, to a marvelous extent, yet he who would do this 
must first give his Attention firmly and fixedly to his 
intent or want, for which purpose it is absolutely neces- 
sary that he shall first know his own mind regarding 
what he means to do, and therefore meditate upon it, 
not dreamily, or vaguely, but earnestly. And this done 
he must assure himself that he takes a real interest in 
the subject, since if such be the case I may declare that 
his success is well nigh certain. 

And here it may be observed that if beginners, before 
taking up any pursuit, would calmly and deliberately 
consider the virtues of Attention and Interest, and how 
to acquire them, or bring them to bear on the proposed 
study or work, we should hear much less of those who 
had "begun German" without learning it, or who failed 
in any other attempt. For there would in very truth 
be few failures in life if those who undertake anything 
first gave to it long and careful consideration by leading 
observation into every detail, and, in fact, becoming 
familiar with the idea, and not trusting to acquire in- 
terest and perseverance in the future. Nine-tenths of 
the difficulty and doubt of ill-at-easeness which be- 
ginners experience, giving them the frightened feeling of 



10 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

"a cat in a strange garret," and which often inspires 
them to retreat, is due entirely to not having begun by 
training the Attention or awakened an Interest in the 
subject. 

It has often seemed to me that the reason for failure, 
or the ultimate failing to attain success, in a vast num- 
ber of "Faith cures," is simply because the people who 
seek them, being generally of a gushing, imaginative 
nature, are lacking in deep reflection, application, or 
earnest attention. They are quick to take hold, and as 
quick to let go. Therefore, they are of all others the 
least likely to seriously reflect beforehand on the neces- 
sity of preparing the mind to patience and application. 
Now it seems a simple thing to say, and it is therefore 
all the harder to understand, that before going to work 
at anything which will require perseverance and re- 
peated effort we can facilitate the result amazingly by 
thinking over and anticipating it, so that when the 
weariness comes it will not be as a discouraging nov- 
elty, but as something of course, even as a fisherman 
accepts his wet feet, or the mosquitoes. But how this 
disposition to grow weary of work or to become inat- 
tentive may be literally and very completely conjured 
away will be more fully explained in another chapter. 
For this let it suffice to say that earnest forethought, 
and the more of it the better, bestowed on aught which 
we intend to undertake, is a thing rarely attempted in 
the real sense in which I mean it, but which, when 
given, eases every burden and lightens every toil. 

Mere forethought repeated is the easiest of mental 
efforts. Yet even a little of it asserted before undertak- 
ing a task will wonderfully facilitate the work. 

"Hypnotism," says Dr. James R. Cocke, "can be 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 11 

used to train the attention of persons habitually inat- 
tentive." But, in fact, forethinking in anyway is the 
minor or initiatory stage of Suggestion. Both are 
gradual persuasion of the nervous system into habit. 

And on this text a marvellous sermon could be 
preached, which, if understood, would sink deeply into 
every heart, inspiring some while alarming others, but 
greatly cheering the brave. And it is this. There are 
millions of people who suffer from irritability, want of 
self-control, loquacity, evil in many forms, or nerves, 
who would fain control themselves and stop it all. 
Moralists think that for this it is enough to convince 
their reason. But this rarely avails. A man may know 
that he is wrong, yet not be able to reform. Now, what 
he wants is to have his attention fixed long enough to 
form a new habit. Find out how this can be done, and 
it may in many cases be the simplest and most me- 
chanical thing in the world to cure him. Men have 
been frightened by a scarecrow into thorough repent- 
ance. "A question of a few vibrations of ether, more 
or less, makes for us all the difference between percep- 
tion and non-perception," or between sight and blind- 
ness. Accustom any such moral invalid to being 
Suggested or willed a few times into a calm, self-con- 
trolled state and the habit may be formed. 

And to those who doubt, and perhaps would sneer, I 
have only to say try it. It will do them good. 



CHAPTER II 

SELF-SUGGESTION 

"In thy soul, as in a sleep, 
Gods or fiends are hidden deep, 
Awful forms of mystery, 
And spirits, all unknown to thee: 
Guard with prayer, and heed with care, 
Ere thou wak'st them from their lair!" 

The records of the human race, however written, 
show that Man has always regarded himself as pos- 
sessed of latent faculties; or capacities of a mysterious 
or extraordinary nature: that is to say, transcending 
in scope or power anything within the range of ordinary 
conscious mental capacity. Such for example is the 
Dream, in which there occurs such a mingling of mad- 
ness with mysterious intuitions or memories that it is 
no wonder it has always been regarded as allied to 
supernatural intelligence. And almost as general as 
the faith in dreams as being weird (in the true sense 
of the much-abused word) or "strangely prophetic," is 
that in fascination, or that one human being can ex- 
ercise over another by a mystic will and power a strong 
influence, even to the making the patient do whatever 
the actor or superior requires. 

However interesting it may be, it is quite needless for 
the purpose which I have in view to sketch the history 
of occultism, magic, or sorcery from the earliest times 
to the present day. Fascination was, however, its prin- 
cipal power, and this was closely allied to, or the parent 

12 



SELF-SUGGESTION 13 

of, what is now known as Suggestion in Hypnotism. 
But ancient magic in its later days certainly became 
very much mixed with magnetism in many phases, and 
it is as an off-shoot of Animal Magnetism that Hypno- 
tism is now regarded, which is to be regretted, since it is 
in reality radically different from it, as several of the 
later writers of the subject are beginning to protest. 
The definition and differences of the two are as fol- 
lows: Animal Magnetism, first formulized by Antonn 
Mesmer from a mass of more or less confused observa- 
tions by earlier writers, was the doctrine that there is 
a magnetic fluid circulating in all created forms, cap- 
able of flux and reflux, which is specially active or 
potent in the human body. Its action may be con- 
centrated or increased by the human will, so as to 
work wonders, one of which is to cause a person who is 
magnetized by another to obey the operator, this obe- 
dience being manifested in many very strange ways. 

Still there were thousands of physiologists or men 
of science who doubted the theory of the action or 
existence of Animal Magnetism, and the vital fluid, as 
declared by the Mesmerists, and they especially dis- 
trusted the marvels narrated of clairvoyance, which 
was too like the thaumaturgy or wonder-working 
attributed to the earlier magicians. Finally, the En- 
glish scientist, Braid, determined that it was not a 
magnetic fluid which produced the recognized results, 
"but that they were of purely subjective origin, de- 
pending on the nervous system of the one acted on." 
That is to say, in ordinary language, it was "all im- 
agination" — but here, as in many other cases, a very 
comprehensive and apparently common-sense word is 
very far from giving an adequate or correct idea of the 



14 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

matter in question — for what the imagination itself 
really is in this relation is a mystery which is very 
difficult to solve. I have heard of an old French 
gentleman who, when in a circus, expressed an opinion 
that there was nothing remarkable in the wonderful 
performances of an acrobat on a tight-rope, or trapeze. 
"Voyez-vous monsieur" he exclaimed; Ce n'est que la 
mathematique — rien que get!" And only the Imagina- 
tion — "all your Imagination" is still the universal 
solvent in Philistia for all such problems. 

Hypnotism reduced to its simplest principle is, like 
the old Fascination, the action of mind upon mind, or 
of a mind upon itself, in such a manner as to produce a 
definite belief, action, or result. It is generally effected 
by first causing a sleep, as is done in animal magnetism, 
during which the subject implicitly obeys the will of 
the operator, or performs whatever he suggests. Hence 
arose the term Suggestion, implying that what the 
patient takes into his head to do, or does, must first 
be submitted to his own mental action. 

Very remarkable results are thus achieved. If the 
operator, having put a subject to sleep (which he can do 
in most cases, if he be clever, and the experiments are 
renewed often enough), will say or suggest to him that 
on the next day, or the one following, or, in fact, any 
determined time, he shall visit a certain friend, or 
dance a jig, or wear a given suit of clothes, or the like, 
he will, when the hypnotic sleep is over, have forgotten 
all about it. But when the hour indicated for his call 
or dance, or change of garment arrives, he will be 
haunted by such an irresistible feeling that he must do 
it; that in most cases it will infallibly be done. It is 
no exaggeration to say that this has been experimented 



SELF-SUGGESTION 15 

on, tested, and tried thousands of times with success and 
incredible ingenuity in all kinds of forms and devices. 
It would seem as if spontaneous attention went to 
sleep, but, like an alarm clock, awoke at the fixed hour, 
and then reflex action. 

Again — and this constitutes the chief subject of all 
I here discuss — we can suggest to ourselves so as to 
produce the same results. It seems to be a curious law 
of Nature that if we put an image or idea into our minds 
with the preconceived determination or intent that it 
shall recur or return at a certain time, or in a certain 
way, after sleeping, it will do so. And here I beg the 
reader to recall what I said regarding the resolving to 
begin any task, that it can be greatly aided by even a 
brief pre-deter ruination. In all cases it is a kind of 
self-suggestion. There would seem to be some magic 
virtue in sleep, as if it preserved and ripened our wishes, 
hence the injunction in the proverbs of all languages to 
sleep over a resolve, or subject — and that "night 
brings counsel." 

It is not necessary that this sleep shall be hypnotic, 
or what is called hypnotic slumber, since, according 
to very good authorities, there is grave doubt as to 
whether the so-called condition is a sleep at all. Hyp- 
notism is at any rate a suspension of the faculties, 
resembling sleep, caused by the will and act of the 
operator. He effects this by fixing the eyes on the 
patient, rnaking passes as in Mesmerism, giving a glass 
of water, or simply commanding sleep. And this, as 
Dr. Cocke has experienced and described, can be 
produced to a degree by anyone on himself. But as I 
have verified by experiment, if we, after retiring to rest 
at night, will calmly yet firmly resolve to do something 



16 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

on the following day, or be as much as possible in a 
certain state of mind, and if we then fall into ordinary 
natural sleep, just as usual, we may on waking have 
forgotten all about it, yet will none the less feel the 
impulse and carry out the determination. 

What gives authority for this assertion, for which I 
am indebted originally to no suggestion or reading, is 
the statement found in several authorities that a man 
can "hypnotize" another without putting him to sleep; 
that is, make him unconsciously follow suggestion. 

I had read in works on hypnotism of an endless num- 
ber of experiments, how patients were made to believe 
that they were monkeys or madmen, or umbrellas, or 
criminals, women or men, a volonte, but in few of them 
did I find that it had ever occurred to anybody to turn 
this wonderful power of developing the intellect to any 
permanent benefit, or to increasing the moral sense. 
Then it came to my mind since Self-Suggestion was 
possible that if I would resolve to work all the next day; 
that is, apply myself to literary or artistic labor with- 
out once feeling fatigue, and succeed, it would be a 
marvelous thing for a man of my age. And so it be- 
fell that by making an easy beginning I brought it to 
pass to perfection. What I mean by an easy begin- 
ning is not to will or resolve too vehemently, but to 
simply and very gently, yet assiduously, impress the 
idea on the mind so as to fall asleep while thinking of it 
as a thing to be. 

My next step was to will that I should, all the next 
day, be free from any nervous or mental worry, or pre- 
serve a hopeful, calm, or well-balanced state of mind. 
This led to many minute and extremely curious experi- 
ences and observations. That the imperturbable or 



SELF-SUGGESTION 17 

calm state of mind promptly set in was undeniable, but 
it often behaved, like the Angel in H. G. Wells' novel, 
"The Wonderful Visit," as if somewhat frightened at, 
or of, with, or by its new abode, and no wonder, for it 
was indeed a novel guest, and the goblins of "Worry 
and Tease, Fidget and Fear," who had hitherto been 
allowed to riot about and come and go at their own 
sweet mischievous wills, were ill-pleased at being made 
to keep quiet by this new lady of the manor. And in- 
deed no mere state of mind, however well maintained, 
can resist everything, and the mildest mannered man 
may cut a throat under great provocation. I had my 
lapses, but withal I was simply astonished to find how, 
by perseverance, habitual calm not only grew on me, 
but how decidedly it increased. I most assuredly have 
experienced it to such a degree as to marvel that the 
method is not more employed as a cure for nervous suf- 
fering and insomnia. 

But far beyond perseverance in labor, or the induc- 
ing a calmer and habitually restful state of mind, was 
the Awakening of the Will, which I found as interest- 
ing as any novel or drama, or series of active adven- 
tures which I have ever read or experienced, I can 
remember when most deeply engaged in it, re-reading 
De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium Eater." I 
took it by chance on my birthday, August 15, which 
was also his, and as I read I longed from my very heart 
that he were alive, that I might consult with him on the 
marvelous Fairyland which it seemed to me had been 
discovered — and then I remembered how Dr. Tuckey 
the leading English hypnotist, had once told me how 
easy it was for his science to completely cure the 
mania for opium and other vices. 



18 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

And this is the discovery: Resolve before going to 
sleep that if there be anything whatever for you to do 
which requires Will or Resolution, be it to undertake 
repulsive or hard work or duty, to face a disagreeable 
person, to fast, to make a speech, to say, "No" to any- 
thing; in short, to keep up to the mark or make any 
kind of effort that you will do it — as calmly and 
unthinkingly as may be. Do not desire to do it sternly 
or forcibly, or in spite of obstacles — but simply and 
cooly make up your mind to do it — and it will much 
more likely be done. And it is absolutely true — crede 
experto — that if persevered in, this willing yourself 
to will by easy impulse unto impulse given, will lead 
to marvelous and most satisfactory results. 

There is one thing of which the young or oversan- 
guine or heedless should be warned. Do not expect 
from self-suggestion, nor anything else in this life, 
prompt perfection, or the maximum of success. You 
may pre-determine to be cheerful, but if you are very 
susceptible to bad weather, and the day should be dis- 
mal, or you should hear of the death of a friend, or a 
great disaster of any kind, some depression of spirits 
must ensue. On the other hand, note well that form- 
ing habit by frequent repetition of willing yourself to 
equanimity and cheerfulness, and also to the banishing 
or repulsive images when they come, will infallibly re- 
sult in a very much happier state of mind. As soon as 
you actually begin to realize that you are acquiring 
such control remember that is the golden hour — and 
redouble your efforts. Perseverando vinces. 

I have, I trust, thus far in a few words explained to 
the reader the rationale of a system of mental discipline 
based on the will, and how by a very easy process the 



SELF-SUGGESTION 19 

latter may, like Attention and Interest, be gradually 
awakened. As I have before declared, everyone would 
like to have a strong or vigorous will, and there is a 
library of books or sermons in some form, exhorting the 
weak to awaken and fortify their wills or characters, but 
all represent it as a hard and vigorous process, akin to 
"storm and stress," battle and victory, and none really 
tell us how to go about it. I have indeed only in- 
dicated that it is by self-suggestion that the first steps 
are taken. Let us now consider the early beginning of 
the art or science ere discussing further developments. 



CHAPTER III 

WILL DEVELOPMENT 

"Ce domaine de la Suggestion est immense. II n'y a pas un 
seul fait de notre vie mentale qui ne puisse etre reproduit et 
exagere artificiellement par ce moyen." 

— Binet et Frere, Le Magnetisme Animal. 

Omitting the many vague indications in earlier 
writers, as well as those drawn fron ancient Oriental 
sources, we may note that Pomponatius or Pompon- 
azzo, an Italian, born in 1462, declared in a work en- 
titled De naturalium effectuum admirandorum Causis 
seu de Incantationibus, that to cure disease it was nec- 
essary to use a strong will, and that the patient should 
have a vigorous imagination and much faith in the 
prae cantator. Paracelsus asserted the same thing in 
many passages directly and indirectly. He regarded 
medicine as magic and the physician as a wizard who 
should by a powerful will act on the imagination of the 
patient. But from some familiarity with the works of 
Paracelsus — the first folio of the first full edition is 
before me as I write — I would say that it would be 
hard to declare what his marvelous mind did not an- 
ticipate in whatever was allied to medicine and natural 
philosophy. Thus I have found that long before Van 
Helmont, who has the credit of the discovery, Para- 
celus knew how to prepare silicate of soda, or water- 
glass. 

Hypnotism as practised at the present day, and with 
regard to its common results, was familiar to Johann 

20 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 21 

Joseph Gassner, a priest in Suabia, of whom Louis 
Figuier writes as follows in his Histoire du Merveilleux 
dans les Temps Modernes, published in 1860. 

"Gassner, like the Englishman Valentine Great- 
rakes, believed himself called by divine inspiration to 
cure diseases. According to the precept of proper 
charity he began at home — that is to say on himself. 
After being an invalid for five or six years, and con- 
sulting, all in vain, many doctors, and taking their 
remedies all for naught, the idea seized him that such 
an obstinate malady as his must have some superna- 
tural evil origin, or in other words, that he was pos- 
sessed by a demon. 

"Therefore he conjured this devil of a disorder, in 
the name of Jesus Christ to leave him — so it left, and 
the good Gassner has put it on record that for sixteen 
years after he enjoyed perfect health and never had oc- 
casion for any remedy, spiritual or otherwise. 

"This success made him reflect whether all maladies 
could not be cured by exorcism. . . The experiment 
which he tried on the invalids of his parish were so 
successful that his renown soon opened through all 
Suabia, and the regions roundabout. Then he began 
to travel, being called for everywhere." 

Gassner was so successful that at Ratisbon he had, 
it is said, 6,000 patients of all ranks encamped in tents. 
He cured by simply touching with his hands. But 
that in which he appears original was that he not only 
made his patients sleep or become insensible by order- 
ing them to do so but caused them to raise their arms 
and legs, tremble, feel any kind of pain, as is now done 
by the hypnotist. "'In a young lady of good family' 
he caused laughter and weeping, stiffness of the limbs, 



22 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

absence of sight and hearing, and anaesthesia so as to 
make the pulse beat at his will." 

M. Figuier and others do not seem to have been 
aware that a century before Gassner, a Pietro Pi- 
perno of Naples published a book in which there was a 
special exorcism or conjurations, as he calls them, for 
every known disorder, and that this possibly gave the 
hint for a system of cure to the Suabian. I have a 
copy of this work, which is extremely rare, it having 
been put on the Roman prohibited list, and otherwise 
suppressed. But Gassner himself was suppressed ere 
long, because the Emperor, Joseph II, cloistered — 
that is to say, imprisoned him for life in the Monastery 
of Pondorf, near Ratisbon. One must not be too good 
or Apostle-like or curative — even in the Church, which 
discourages trop de zele. 

But the general accounts of Gassner give the im- 
pression, which has not been justly conveyed, that he 
owed his remarkable success in curing himself and 
others not to any kind of theory nor faith in magnet- 
ism, or in religion, so much as unconscious suggestion, 
aided by a powerful Will which increased with suc- 
cesses. To simply pray to be cured of an illness, or 
even to be cured by prayer, was certainly no novelty 
to any Catholic or Protestant in those days. The very 
nature of his experiments in making many people per- 
form the same feats which are now repeated by hyp- 
notizers, and which formed no part of a religious cure, 
indicate clearly that he was an observer of strange 
phenomena or a natural philosopher. I have seen my- 
self an Egyptian juggler in Boulak perform many of 
these as professed tricks, and I do not think it was from 
any imitation of French clairvoyance. He also pre- 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 23 

tended that it was by an exertion of his Will, aided by 
magic forms which he read from a book, that he made 
two boys obey him. It was probably for these tricks 
which savored of magic that Gassner was "retired." 

Having in the previous pages indicated the general 
method by which Will may be awakened and strength- 
ened, that the reader may as soon as possible under- 
stand the simple principle of action, I will now discuss 
more fully the important topic of influencing and 
improving our mental powers by easily induced At- 
tention, or attention guided by simple Foresight, and 
pre-resolution aided by simple auto or self-suggestion. 
And I believe, with reason, that by these very simple 
processes (which have not hitherto been tested that 
I am aware of by any writer in the light in which I 
view them) ; the Will, which is the power of all powers 
and the mainspring of the mind, can be by means of 
persuasion increased or strengthened ad infinitum. 

It is evident that Gassner' s method partakes in 
equal proportions of the principles of the well-known 
"Faith Cure," and that of the Will, or of the passive 
and the active. What is wanting in it is self-knowledge 
and the very easily awakened forethought which, when 
continued, leads to far greater and much more certain 
results. Forethought costs little exertion: it is so 
calmly active that the weakest minds can employ it; 
but wisely employed it can set tremendous force in 
action. 

As regards Gassner, it is admissible that many more 
cures of disease can be effected by what some vaguely 
call the Imagination, and others Mental Action, than is 
generally supposed. Science now proves every year, 
more and more, that diseases are allied, and that they 



24 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

can be reached through the nervous system. In the 
celebrated correspondence between Kant and Hufe- 
land there is almost a proof that incipient gout can be 
cured by will or determination. But if a merely tem- 
porary or partial cure can really be obtained, or a cessa- 
tion from suffering, if the ill be really curable at all, it 
is but reasonable to assume that by continuing the 
remedy or system, the relief will or must correspond to 
the degree of "faith" in the patient. And this would 
infallibly be the case if the sufferer had the will. But 
unfortunately the very people who are most frequently 
relieved are those of the impulsive imaginative kind, 
who "soon take hold and soon let go," or who are 
merely attracted by a sense of wonder which soon loses 
its charm, and so they react. 

Therefore if we cannot only awaken the Will, but 
also keep it alive, it is very possible that we may not 
only effect great and thorough cures of diseases, but 
also induce whatever state of mind we please. This 
may be effected by the action of the minds or wills of 
others on our own, which influence can be gradually 
transferred from the operator to the patient himself, as 
when in teaching a boy to swim the master holds the 
pupil up until the latter finds that he is unconsciously 
moving by his own exertion. 

What the fickle and "nervous" patients of any kind 
need is to have the idea kept before their minds con- 
tinuously. They generally rush into a novelty with- 
out Forethought. Therefore they should be trained 
or urged to forethink or reflect seriously and often on 
the cure or process proposed. This is the setting of 
the nail, which is to be driven in by suggestion. The 
other method is where we act entirely for ourselves both 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 25 

as regards previous preparation and subsequent 
training. 

I here repeat, since the whole object of the book is 
that certain facts shall be deeply and clearly impressed 
on the reader's mind, that if we will that a certain idea 
shall recur to us on the following, or any other day, 
and if we bring the mind to bear upon it just before fall- 
ing asleep, it may be forgotten when we awake, but it 
will recur to us when the time comes. This is what 
almost everybody has proved, that if we resolve to 
awake at a certain hour we generally do so; if not the 
first time after a few experiments, apropos of which I 
would remark that "no one should ever expect full 
success from any first experiment. 

Now it is certainly true that we all remember or re- 
call certain things to be done at certain hours, even if 
we have a hundred other thoughts in the interval. But 
it would seem as if by some law which we do not 
understand Sleep or repose acted as a preserver and 
reviver, nay, as a real strengthener of Thoughts, in- 
spiring them with a new spirit. It would seem, too, 
as if they came out of Dreamland, as the children in 
Tieck's story did out of Fairyland, with new fives. 
This is, indeed, a beautiful conception, and I may re- 
mark that I will in another place comment on the 
curious fact that we can add to and intensify ideas by 
thus passing them through our minds in sleep. 

Just by the same process as that which enables us to 
awake at a given hour, and simply by substituting other 
ideas for that of time, can we acquire the ability to 
bring upon ourselves pre-determined or desired states 
of mind. This is Self-Suggestion or deferred deter- 
mination, be it with or without sleep. It becomes more 



26 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

certain in its result with every new experiment or 
trial. The great factor in the whole is perseverance 
or repetition. By faith we can remove mountains, by 
perseverance we can carry them away, and the two 
amount to precisely the same thing. 

And here be it noted what, I believe, no writer has 
ever before observed, that as perseverance depends on 
renewed forethought and reflection, so by continued 
practice and thought, in self-suggestion, the one prac- 
ticing begins to find before long that his conscious will 
is acting more vigorously in his waking hours, and that 
he can finally dispense with the sleeping process. For, 
in fact, when we once find that our will is really be- 
ginning to obey us, and inspire courage or indifference 
where we were once timid, there is no end to the con- 
fidence and power which may ensue. 

Now this is absolutely true. A man may will certain 
things ere he falls asleep. This willing should not be 
intense, as the old animal magnetizers taught; it ought 
rather to be like a quiet, firm desire or familiarization 
with what we want, often gently repeated till we fall 
asleep in it. So the seeker wills or wishes that he shall, 
during all the next day, feel strong and vigorous, hope- 
ful, energetic, cheerful, bold, or calm or peaceful. And 
the result will be obtained just in proportion to the de- 
gree in which the command or desire has impressed the 
mind, or sunk into it. 

But, as I have said: Do not expect that all of this 
will result from a first trial. It may even be that 
those who succeed very promptly will be more likely 
to give out in the end than those who work up from 
small beginnings. The first step may very well be that 
of merely selecting some particular object and calmly 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 27 

or gently, yet determinedly directing the mind to it, 
to be recalled at a certain hour. Repeat the experi- 
ment, if successful add to it something else. Violent 
effort is unadvisable, yet mere repetition without 
thought is time lost. Think while willing what it is 
you want, and above all, if you can, think with a feeling 
that the idea is to recur to you. 

This acting or working two thoughts at once may be 
difficult for some readers to understand, though all 
writers on the brain illustrate it. It may be formulated 
thus: "I wish to remember tomorrow at four o'clock 
to visit my bookseller — bookseller's — four o'clock — 
four o'clock." But with practice the two will become 
as one conception. 

When the object of a state of mind, as, for instance, 
calmness all day long, is obtained, even partially, the 
operator (who must, of course, do all to help himself to 
keep calm, should he remember his wish) will begin to 
believe in himself sincerely, or in the power of his will 
to compel a certain state of mind. This won, all may 
be won, by continued reflection and perseverance. It 
is the great step gained, the alphabet learned, by which 
the mind may pass to boundless power. 

It may be here interesting to consider some of the 
states of mind into which a person may be brought by 
hypnotism. When subject to the will of an operator 
the patient may believe anything — that he is a mouse 
or a girl, drunk or inspired. The same may result from 
self-hypnotism by artificial methods which appeal 
powerfully to the imagination. According to Dr. 
James R. Cocke many of his patients could induce 
this by looking at any bright object, a bed of coals, or 
at smooth running water. It is, of course, to be un- 



28 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

der stood that it is not merely by looking that hyp- 
notism is induced. There must be will or determinate 
thought; but when once brought about it is easily 
repeated. 

"They have the ability," writes Dr. Cocke, "to re- 
sist this state or bring it on at will. Many of them 
describe beautiful scenes from Nature, or some mighty 
cathedral with its lofty dome, or the faces of imaginary 
beings." This writer's own first experience of self- 
hypnotism was very remarkable. He had been told by 
a hypnotizer to keep the number twenty-six in his 
mind. He did so, and after hearing a ringing in his 
ears and then a strange roaring he felt that spirits were 
all round him — music sounding and a sensation as of 
expanding. 

But self-hypnotizing, by the simple easy process of 
trusting to ordinary sleep, is better adapted to action 
delayed, or states of mind, These may be: 

A desire to be at peace or perfectly calm. After a 
few repetitions it will be found that, though irritating 
accidents may countervene, the mind will recur more 
and more to calm. 

To feel cheerful or merry. 

To be in a brave, courageous, hearty or vigorous mood. 

To work hard without feeling weary. This I have 
fully tested with success, and especially mention it for 
the benefit of students. All of my intimate friends can 
certify what I here assert. 

To keep the faculty of quickness of perception alert, 
as, for instance, when going out to perceive more than 
usual in a crowd. A botanist or mineralogist may 
awaken the faculty with the hope of observing or find- 
ing with success. 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 29 

To be susceptible to beauty as, for instance, when visit- 
ing a scene or gallery. In such cases it means to de 
rive Attention from Will. The habitually trained Fore- 
thought or Attention is here a great aid to perception. 

To read or study keenly and observantly. This is a 
faculty which can be very much aided by forethought 
and self-suggestion. 

To forgive and forget enemies and injuries. Allied to 
it is the forgetting and ignoring of all things which 
annoy, vex, harrass, tease, or worry us in any way what- 
ever. To expect perfect immunity in this respect from 
the unavoidable ills of life is absurd; but having paid 
great attention to the subject, and experimented largely 
on it, I cannot resist declaring that it seems to me in 
very truth that no remedy for earthly suffering was yet 
discovered equal to this. I generally put the wish into 
this form: "I will forget and forgive all causes of 
enmity and anger, and should they arise I determine at 
once to cast them aside." It is a prayer, as it were, to 
the Will to stand by me, and truly the will is Deus in 
nobis to those who believe that God helps those who 
help themselves. For as we can get into the fearful 
state of constantly recalling all who have ever vexed or 
wronged us, or nursing the memory of what we hate 
or despise, until our minds are like sewers or charnel- 
houses of dead and poisonous things, so we can reso- 
lutely banish them, at first by forethought, then by 
suggestion, and finally by waking will. And verily 
there are few people living who would not be the better 
for such exercise. Many there are who say that they 
would fain forget and be serene, yet cannot. I do not 
believe this. We can all exorcise our devils — all of 
them — if we will. 



30 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

To restrain irritability in our intercourse with others. 
It will not be quite sufficient as regards controlling the 
temper to merely will, or wish to subdue it. We must 
also will that when the temptation arises it may be 
preceded by forethought or followed by regret. As it 
often happens to a young soldier to be frightened or 
run away the first time he is under fire, and yet learn 
courage in the future, so the aspirant resolved to master 
his passions must not doubt because he finds that the 
first step slips. Apropos of which I would note that in 
all the books on Hypnotism that I have read their 
authors testify to a certain false quantity or amount of 
base alloy in the most thoroughly suggested patients. 
Something of modesty, something of a moral con- 
science always remains. Thus, as Dr. Cocke declares, 
Hypnotism has not succeeded in cases suffering from 
what are called imperative conceptions, or irresisti- 
ble belief. "Cases suffering from various imperative 
conceptions are, while possessing their reasons, either 
irresistibly led by certain impulses or they cannot rid 
themselves of erroneous ideas concerning themselves 
and others." This means, in fact, that they had been 
previously hypnotized to a definite conception which 
had become imperative. As in Witchcraft, it is a law 
that one sorcerer cannot undo the work of another 
without extraordinary pains; so in hypnotism it is 
hard to undo what is already established by a similar 
agent. 

One can will to remember or recall anything forgotten. 
I will not be responsible that this will invariably suc- 
ceed at the first time, but that it does often follow 
continued determination I know from experience. I 
believe that where an operator hypnotizes a subject it 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 31 

very often succeeds, if we may believe the instances 
recorded. And I am also inclined to believe that in 
many cases, though assuredly not in all, whatever is 
effected by one person upon another can also be brought 
about in one's self by patience in forethought, self- 
suggestion, and the continued will which they awaken. 

We can revive by this process old well-nigh forgotten 
trains of thought. This is difficult but possible. It be- 
longs to an advanced stage of experience or may be 
found in very susceptible subjects. I do not belong at 
all to the latter, but I have perfectly succeeded in con- 
tinuing a dream; that is to say, I have woke up three 
times during a dream, and, being pleased with it, 
wished it to go on, then fallen asleep and it went on, 
like three successive chapters in a novel. 

We can subdue the habit of worrying ourselves and 
others needlessly about every trifling or serious cause of 
irritation which enters our minds. There are many peo- 
ple who from a mere idle habit or self-indulgence and 
irrepressible loquacity make their own lives and those 
of others very miserable — as all my readers can con- 
firm from experience. I once knew a man of great 
fortune, with many depending on him, who vented his 
ill-temper and petty annoyances on almost everyone to 
whom he spoke. He was so fully aware of this failing 
that he at once, in confessing it to a mutual friend, shed 
tears of regret. Yet he was a millionaire man of busi- 
ness, and had a strong will which might have been 
directed to a cure. All peevish, fretful, and talkative, 
or even complaining people, should be induced to 
seriously study this subject. 

We can cure ourselves of the habit of profanity or 
using vulgar language. No one doubts that a negro who 



32 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

believes in sorcery, if told that if he uttered an oath, 
Voodoo would fall upon him and cause him to waste 
away, would never swear again. Or that a South Sea 
Islander would not do the same for fear of taboo. Now 
both these forms of sorcery are really hypnotizing by 
action on belief, and Forethought aided by the sleep 
process has precisely the same result — it establishes 
a fixed idea in the mind, or a haunting presence. 

We can cure ourselves of intemperance. This was, I 
believe, first established or extensively experimented on 
by Dr. Charles Lloyd Tuckey. This can be aided 
by willing that the liquor, if drunk, shall be nauseating. 

We can repress to a remarkable degree the sensations 
of fatigue, hunger, and thirst. Truly no man can defy 
the laws of nature, but it is very certain that in cases 
like that of Dr. Tanner, and the Hindu ascetics who 
were boxed up and buried for many weeks, there must 
have been mental determination as well as physical 
endurance. As regards this very important subject of 
health, or the body, and the degree to which it can be 
controlled by the mind or will, it is to be observed that 
of late years physiologists are beginning to observe that 
all "mental" or corporeal functions are evidently con- 
trolled by the same laws or belong to the same organi- 
zation. If "the emotions, say of anger or love, in their 
more emphatic forms, are plainly accompanied by vary- 
ing changes of the heart .and blood-vessels, the viscera 
and muscles," it must follow that changes or ex- 
citement in the physical organs must react on the 
emotions. "All modes of sensibility, whatever their 
origin," says Luys, "are physiologically transported 
into the sensorium. From fiber to fiber, from sensitive 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 33 

element to sensitive element, our whole organism is 
sensitive; our whole sentimental personality, in fact, is 
conducted just as it exists, into the plexuses of the sen- 
sorium commune. 1 ' Therefore, if every sensation in the 
body acts on the brain by the aid of secondary brains 
or ganglions, it must be that the brain in turn can in 
some way act on the body. And this has hitherto been 
achieved or attempted by magicians, miracle-mongers, 
thaumaturgists, mesmerists, and the like, and by the 
modern hypnotizer, in which we may observe that 
there has been at every step less and less mysticism or 
supernaturalism, and a far easier process or way of 
working. And I believe it may be fairly admitted 
that in this work I have simplified the process of 
physically influencing mental action and rendered it 
easier. The result from the above conclusions being 
that we can control many disorders or forms of disease. 
This is an immense subject, and it would be impossible 
within a brief sketch to determine its limits or con- 
ditions. That what are called nervous disorders, which 
are evidently the most nearly alhed to emotions — 
as, for instance, a headache, or other trouble induced 
by grief — oan be removed by joy, or some counteract- 
ing emotion or mere faith is very well known and gen- 
erally believed. But of late science has established 
that the affinities between the cerebral and other 
functions are so intimately, extensively, and strangely 
sympathetic or identical that it is becoming impos- 
sible to say what disease may not be temporarily al- 
leviated or cured by new discoveries in directing the 
nervo-mental power or will. The Faith-Cure, Magic, 
Mesmerism, Religious Thaumaturgy, and other sys- 



34 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

terns have given us a vast number of authentic cures 
of very positive disorders. But from the point of view 
taken by many people what has been wanting in all 
is, firstly, a clear and simple scientific method free 
from all spiritualism or wonder, and, secondly, the 
art of Perfecting the cures by Perseverance. For what 
will relieve for an hour can be made to cure forever, if 
we exercise foresight and make perpetuity a part of 
our whole plan. 

Now, as regards curing disorders, I beg the reader to 
specially observe that this, like many other works, de- 
pends on the state of the mind; nor can it be under- 
taken with hope of success unless the operator has by 
previous practice in easy experiments succeeded in per- 
fectly convincing himself that he has acquired control 
of his will. Thus having succeeded in willing himself 
to work all day without fatigue, or to pass the day with- 
out being irritable, let him begin to consider, reflect 
and realize that he can make himself do this or that, for 
the more he simply induces the belief and makes him- 
self familiar with it, the stronger and more obedient 
his Will will be. However, this is simply true that to 
any self-suggestionist whatever who has had some 
little practice and attained to even a moderate com- 
mand over his will, a very great degree of the power to 
relieve bodily suffering is easy to develop, and it may 
be increased by practice to an incredible extent. Thus 
in case of suffering by pain of any kind in another, be- 
gin by calmly persuading him or her that relief has 
been obtained thousands of times by the process, and 
endeavor to awaken belief, or, at least, so much at- 
tention and interest that the fact will remain as fore- 
thought in the mind. The next step should be to 



WILL DEVELOPMENT 35 

promise relief, and then induce sleep by the showing a 
coin, passes with the hands, etc., or allowing the sub- 
ject to sink into a natural slumber. If there be no 
success the first time, repeat the experiment. Gout, 
headaches, all forms of positive pain, severe colds, 
anaemia, insomnia, melancholia, and dyspepsia appear 
to be among the ills which yield most readily to, or 
are alleviated (to the great assistance of a regular 
cure), by suggestion. 

As regards curing disorders, producing insensibility 
to hunger and thirst, heat or cold, and the like, all are 
aware that to a man who is under the influence of some 
great and overpowering emotion, such as rage or sur- 
prise, or joy, no pain is perceptible. In like manner, 
by means of persuasion, sleep, a temporary oblivion, 
and the skillfully awakened Will, the same insensibil- 
ity or ignoring can be effected. There is, however, this 
to be observed, that while in the vast library of books 
which teach mental medicine the stress is laid entirely 
on producing merely a temporary cure I insist that by 
great Forethought, by conducting the cure with a view 
to permanence, ever persuading the patient to think 
on the future, and finally by a very thorough continu- 
ation and after-treatment many diseases may be radi- 
cally removed. 

To recapitulate and make all clear we will suppose 
that the reader desires during the following day to be in 
a calm, self-possessed or peaceful state of mind. There- 
fore at night, after retiring, let him first completely 
consider what he wants and means to acquire. This is 
the Forethought, and it should be as thorough as pos- 
sible. Having done this, will or declare that what you 
want shall come to pass on awaking, and repeating this 



36 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

and thinking on it, fall asleep. This is all. Do not 
wish for two things at once, or not until your mind 
shall have become familiar with the process. As you 
feel your power strengthen with success you may will 
yourself to do whatever you desire. 



CHAPTER IV 

FORETHOUGHT 

"Post fata resurgo." 

"What is forethought may sleep — 'tis very plain, 
But rest assured that it will rise again." 
"Forethought is plan inspired by an absolute Will to carry 
it out." 

It may have struck the reader as an almost awful, or 
as a very wonderful idea, that man has within himself, 
if he did but know it, tremendous powers or trans- 
cendental faculties of which he has really never had 
any conception. One reason why such bold thought 
has been subdued is that he has always felt according 
to tradition, the existence of superior supernatural 
(and with them patrician) beings, by whose power and 
patronage he has been effectively restrained or kept 
under. Hence gloom and pessimism, doubt and de- 
spair. It may seem a bold thing to say that it did not 
occur to any philosopher through the ages that man, 
resolute and noble and free, might will himself into a 
stage of mind defying devils and phantasms, or that 
amid the infinite possibilities of human nature there 
was the faculty of assuming the Indifference habitual 
to all animals when not alarmed. But he who will 
consider these studies on Self-Hypnotism may possibly 
infer from them that we have indeed within us a mar- 
velous power of creating states of mind which make the 
idea of Pessimism ridiculous. For it renders potent 
and grand, pleasing or practically useful, to all who 

37 



38 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

practice it, a faculty which has the great advantage 
that it may enter into all the relations or acts of life; 
will give to everyone something to do, something to 
occupy his mind, even in itself, and if we have other 
occupations, Forethought and Induced Will may be 
made to increase our interest in them and stimulate 
our skill. In other words, we can by means of this Art 
increase our ability to practice all arts, and enhance or 
stimulate Genius in every way or form, be it practical, 
musical or plastic. 

Since I began this work there fell into my hands an 
ingenious and curious book, entitled "Happiness as 
found in Forethought minus Fearthought" by Horace 
Fletcher, in which the author very truly declares that 
Fear in some form has become the arch enemy of Man, 
and through the fears of our progenitors developed by 
a thousand causes, we have inherited a growing stock 
of diseases, terrors, apprehensions, pessimisms, and the 
like, in which he is perfectly right. 

But as Mr. Fletcher declares, if men could take 
Forethought as their principle and guide they would 
obviate, anticipate or foresee and provide for so many 
evil contigencies and chances that we might secure 
even peace and happiness, and then man may become 
brave and genial, altruistic and earnest, in spite of it all, 
by willing away his Timidity. 

I have not assumed a high philosophical or meta- 
physical position in this work; my efforts have been 
confined to indicating how by a very simple and well- 
nigh mechanical process, perfectly intelligible to every 
human being with an intellect, one may induce certain 
states of mind and thereby create a Will. But I quite 
agree with Mr. Fletcher that Forethought is strong 



FORETHOUGHT 39 

thought, and the point from which all projects must 
proceed. As I understand it, it is a kind of impulse or 
projection of will into the coming work. I may here 
illustrate this with a curious fact in physics. If the 
reader wished to ring a door-bell so as to produce as 
much sound as possible he would probably pull it as far 
back as he could and then let it go. But if he would 
in letting it go simply give it a tap with his forefinger 
he would actually redouble the noise. 

Or, to shoot an arrow as far as possible, it is not 
enough to merely draw the bow to its utmost span or 
tension. If just as it goes you will give the bow a 
quick push, though the effort be trifling, the arrow will 
fly almost as far again as it would have done without it. 

Or, if, as is well known, in wielding a very sharp 
saber, we make the draw-cut, that is if we add to the 
blow or chop, as with an axe, a certain slight pull and 
simultaneously, we can cut through a silk handkerchief 
or a sheep. 

Forethought is the tap on the bell, the push of the 
bow, the draw on the saber. It is the deliberate yet 
rapid action of the mind when before falling to sleep or 
dismissing thought we bid the mind to subsequently 
respond. It is more than merely thinking what we are 
to do; it is the bidding or ordering self to fulfil a task 
before willing it. 

Forethought in the senses employed or implied as 
here described means much more than mere previous 
consideration or reflection, which may be very feeble. 
It is, in fact, "constructive," which, as inventive, im- 
plies active thought. " Forethought stimulates, aids the 
success of honest aims." Therefore, as the active 
principle in mental work, I regard it as a kind of self- 



40 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

impulse, or that minor part in the division of the force 
employed which sets the major into action. Now, if 
we really understand this and can succeed in employ- 
ing Forethought as the preparation for, and impulse to, 
Self-Suggestion, we shall greatly aid the success of the 
latter, because the former insures attention and inter- 
est. Forethought may be brief, but it should always 
be energetic. By cultivating it we acquire the enviable 
talent of those men who take in everything at a glance, 
and act promptly, like a Napoleon. This power is 
universally believed to be entirely innate or a gift; but 
it can be induced or developed in all minds in propor- 
tion to the will by practice. 

Be it observed that as the experimenter progresses in 
the development of will by suggestion, he can gradually 
lay aside the latter, or all processes, especially if he work 
to such an end, anticipating it. Then he simply acts 
by clear will and strength, and Forethought constitutes 
all his stock-in-trade, process or aid. He preconceives 
and wills energetically at once, and by practice and 
repetition Forethought becomes a marvelous help on 
all occasions and emergencies. 

To make it of avail the one who frequently practices 
self-suggestion, at first with, and then without sleep, 
will inevitably find ere long that to facilitate his work, 
or to succeed he must first write, as it were, or plan a 
preface, synopsis, or epitome of his proposed work, to 
start it and combine with it a resolve or decree that it 
must be done, the latter being the tap on the bell-knob. 
Now the habit of composing the plan as perfectly, yet 
succinctly as possible, daily or nightly, combined with 
the energetic impulse to send it off, will ere long give 
the operator a conception of what I mean by Foresight 



FORETHOUGHT 41 

which by description I cannot. And when grown 
familiar and really mastered its possessor will find 
that his power to think and act promptly in all the 
emergencies of life has greatly increased. 

Therefore Forethought means a great deal more, as 
here employed, than seeing in advance, or deliberate 
prudence — it rather implies, like divination or fore- 
knowledge, sagacity and mental action as well as mere 
perception. It will inevitably or assuredly grow with 
the practice of self-suggestion if the latter be devoted 
to mental improvement, but as it grows it will qualify 
the operator to lay aside the sleep and suggest to him- 
self directly. 

All men of great natural strength of mind, gifted with 
the will to clo and dare, the beings of action and genius, 
act directly, and are like athletes who lift a tree by the 
simple exertion of the muscles. He who achieves his 
aim by self-culture, training, or suggestion, is like one 
who raises the weight by means of a lever, and if he 
practice it often enough he may in the end become as 
strong as the other. 

There is a curious and very illustrative instance of 
Forethought in the sense in which I am endeavoring to 
explain it, given in a novel, the "Scalp-Hunters," by 
Mayne Reid, with whom I was well acquainted in 
bygone years. Not having the original, I translate 
from a French version: 

"His aim with the rifle is infallible, and it would 
seem as if the ball obeyed his Will. There must be a 
kind of directing principle in his mind, independent of 
strength of nerve and sight. He and one other are the 
only men in whom I have observed this singular 
power." 



■■■■ 



42 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

This means simply the exercise in a second, as it 
were, of "the tap on the bell-knob," or the projection 
of the will into the proposed shot, and which may be 
applied to any act. Gymnasts, leapers, and the like 
are all familiar with it. It springs from resolute con- 
fidence and self -impulse enforced; but it also creates 
them, and the growth is very great and rapid when the 
idea is much kept before the mind. In this latter lies 
most of the problem. 

In Humanity, mind, and especially Forethought, or 
reflection, combined in one effort with will and energy, 
enters into all acts, though often unsuspected, for it is 
a kind of unconscious reflex action or cerebration. Thus 
I once discovered to my astonishment in a gymnasium 
that the extremely mechanical action of putting up a 
heavy weight from the ground to the shoulder and 
from the shoulder to the full reach of the arm above 
the head, became much easier after a little practice, 
although my muscles had not grown, nor my strength 
increased during the time. And I found that what- 
ever the exertion might be there was always some trick 
or knack, however indescribable, by means of which 
the man with a brain could surpass a dolt at anything, 
though the latter were his equal in strength. But it 
sometimes happens that the trick can be taught and 
even improved on. And it is in all cases Forethought, 
even in the lifting of weights or the willing on the 
morrow to write a poem. 

For this truly weird power — since "the weird 
sisters" in "Macbeth" means only the sisters who fore- 
see — is, in fact, the energy which projects itself in 
some manner, which physiology can as yet only very 
weakly explain, and even if the explanation were per- 



FORETHOUGHT 43 

feet, it would amount in fact to no more than showing 
the machinery of a watch, when the main object for 
us is that it should keep time, and tell the hour, as well 
as exhibit the ingenuity of the maker — which thing 
is very much lost sight of, even by many very great 
thinkers, misled by the vanity of showing how much 
they know. 

Yes, Foresight or Forethought projects itself in all 
things, and it is a serious consideration, or one of such 
immense value, that when really understood, and above 
all subjected to some practice — such as I have de- 
scribed, and which, as far as I can see, is necessary — 
one can bring it to bear intelligently on all the actions 
of life, that is to say, to much greater advantage than 
when we use it ignorantly, just as a genius endowed 
with strength can do far more with it than an ignora- 
mus. For there is nothing requiring Thought in which 
it cannot aid us. I have alluded to Poetry. Now this 
does not mean that a man can become a Shakespeare 
or Shelley by means of all the forethought and sug- 
gestion in the world, but they will, if well developed 
and directed, draw out from the mystic depths of mind 
such talent as he has — doubtless in some or all cases 
more than he has ever shown. 

No one can say what is hidden in every memory; it 
is like the sounding ocean with its buried cities, and 
treasures and wondrous relics of the olden time. This 
much we may assume to know, that every image or idea 
or impression which ever reached us through any of our 
senses entered a cell when it was ready for it, where it 
sleeps or wakes, most images being in the former con- 
dition. In fact, every brain is like a monastery of 
the Middle Ages, or a beehive. But it is built on a 



■■■ 



44 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

gigantic scale, for it is thought that no man, however 
learned or experienced he might be, ever contrived 
during all his life to so much as even half fill the cells 
of his memory. And if any reader should be appre- 
hensive lest it come to pass with him in this age of 
unlimited supply of cheap knowledge that he will fill 
all his cells let him console himself with the reflection 
that it is supposed that Nature, in such a case, will have 
a further supply of new cells ready, she never, as yet, 
having failed in such rough hospitality, though it 
often leaves much to be desired! 

Yes, they are all there — every image of the past, 
every face which ever smiled on us — the hopes and 
fears of bygone years — the rustling of grass and flowers 
and the roar of the sea — the sound of trumpets in 
processions grand — the voices of the great and good 
among mankind — or what you will. Every fine ever 
read in print, every picture and face and house is there. 
Many an experiment has shown this to be true; also 
that by mesmerizing or hypnotizing processes the 
most hidden images or memories can be awakened. 
In fact, the idea has lost much of its wonder since the 
time of Coleridge, now that every sound can be 
recorded, laid away and reproduced, and we are touch- 
ing closely on an age when all that lies perdu in any 
mind can or will be set forth visibly, and all that a 
man has ever seen be shown to the world. For this 
is no whit more wonderful than that we can convey 
images or pictures by telegraph, and when I close my 
eyes and recall or imagine a form it does not seem 
strange that there might be some process by means of 
which it might be photographed. 

And here we touch upon the Materialization of 



FORETHOUGHT 45 

Thought, which conception loses a part of the ab- 
surdity with which Spiritualists and Occulists have 
invested it, if we regard all nature as one substance. 
For, in truth, all that was ever perceived, even to the 
shadow of a dream by a lunatic, had as real an exist- 
ence while it lasted as the Pyramids of Egypt, else it 
could not have been perceived. Sense cannot, even 
in dreams, observe what is not for the time an effect 
on matter. If a man imagines or makes believe to him- 
self that he has a fairy attendant, or a dog, and fancies 
that he sees it, that man does really see something, 
though it be invisible to others. There is some kind 
of creative brain-action going on, some employment of 
atoms and forces, and, if this be so, we may enter it 
among the Possibilities of the Future that the Material 
in any form whatever may be advanced, or further 
materialized or made real. 

It is curious that this idea has long been familiar 
to believers in magic. In more than one Italian 
legend which I have collected a sorceress or goddess 
evolves a life from her own soul, as a fire emits a spark. 
In fact, the fancy occurs in some form in all myth- 
ologies, great or small. In one old Irish legend a 
wizard turns a Thought into a watchdog. The his- 
tory of genius and of Invention is that of realizing 
ideas, of making them clearer and stronger and more 
comprehensive. Thus it seems to me that the word 
Forethought as generally loosely understood, when 
compared to what it has been shown capable of ex- 
pressing, is almost as much advanced as if like the 
fairy Hermelina, chronicled by Grosius, it had been 
originally a mere fantasy, and gradually advanced to 
fairy life so as to become the companion of a wizard. 



■1 



46 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

If an artist, say a painter, will take forethought for a 
certain picture, whether the subject be determined or 
not, bringing himself to that state of easy, assured con- 
fidence, as a matter of course that he will retain the 
subject he will, if not at the first effort, almost certainly 
at last find himself possessed of it. Let him beware 
of haste, or of forcing the work. When he shall have 
secured suggestive Interest let him will that Ingenuity 
shall be bolder and his spirit draw from the stores of 
memory more abundant material. Thus our powers 
may be gradually and gently drawn into our service. 
Truly it would seem as if there were no limit to what a 
man can evolve out of himself if he will take Thought 
thereto. 

Forethought can be of vast practical use in cases 
where confidence is required. Many a young clergy- 
man and lawyer has been literally frightened out of a 
career, and many an actor ruined for want of a very 
little knowledge, and in this I speak from personal ex- 
perience. Let the aspirant who is to appear in public, 
or pass an examination, and is alarmed, base his fore- 
thought on such ideas as this, that he would not be 
afraid to repeat his speech to one person or two — why 
should he fear a hundred? There are some who can 
repeat this idea to themselves till it takes hold strongly, 
and they rise almost feeling contempt for all in court — 
as did the old lady in Saint Louis, who felt so relieved 
when a witness at not feeling frightened that she bade 
judge and jury cease looking at her in that impudent 
way. 

Having read the foregoing to a friend he asked me 
whether I believed that by Forethought and Sugges- 
tion a gentleman could be induced without diffidence to 



FORETHOUGHT 47 

offer himself in marriage, since, as is well known, that 
the most eligible young men often put off wedding for 
years because they cannot summon up courage to 
propose. To which I replied that I had no great 
experience of such cases, but as regarded the method 
I was like the Scotch clergyman who, being asked by 
a wealthy man if he thought that the gift of a thousand 
pounds to the Kirk would save the donor's soul, 
replied: "I'm na prepairet to preceesly answer thot 
question — but I wad vera warmly advise ye to try it." 

It must be remembered that for the very great 
majority of cases, if really not for all, the practicer 
of this process must be of temperate habits, and 
never attempt after a hearty meal, or drinking freely, 
to exercise Forethought or Self-Suggestion. Peaceful 
mental action during sleep requires that there shall be 
very light labor of digestion, and disturbed or trouble- 
some dreams are utterly incompatible with really suc- 
sessful results. Nor will a single day's temperance 
suffice. It requires many days to bring the whole 
frame and constitution into good fit order. Here there 
can be no evasion, for more than ordinary temperance 
in food and drink is absolutely indispensable. 

It is a principle, recognized by all physiologists, that 
digestion and fixed thought cannot go on together; it 
is even unadvisable to read while eating. Thus in all 
the old magical operations, which were, in fact, self- 
hypnotism, a perfect fast is insisted on with reason. 
This is all so self-evident that I need not dwell on it. 
It will be needless for anyone to take up this subject 
as a trilling pastime, or attempt self-suggestion and de- 
velopment of will with as little earnestness as one would 
give to a game of cards; for in such a half-way effort 



■■ 



48 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

time will be lost and nothing come of it. Unless en- 
tered on with the most serious resolve to persevere, and 
make greater effort and more earnestly at every step, 
it had better be let alone. 

All who will persevere with calm determination can- 
not fail ere long to gain a certain success, and this 
achieved, the second step is much easier. However, 
there are many people who after doing all in their power 
to get to the gold or diamond mines, hasten away even 
when in the full tide of success, because they are fickle 

— and it is precisely such people who easily tire who 
are most easily attracted, be it to mesmerism, hyp- 
notism, or any other wonder. And they are more 
wearisome and greater foes to true Science than the 
utterly indifferent or the ignorant. 

This work will not have been written in vain should 
it induce the reader to reflect on what is implied by 
patient repetition or perseverance, and what an in- 
credible and varied power that man acquires who 
masters it. He who can lead himself, or others, into 
a habit can do anything. Even Religion is, in fact, 
nothing else. "Religion," said the reviewer of "The 
Evolution of the Idea of God," by Grant Allen, "he 
defines as Custom or Practice — not theory, not theol- 
ogy, not ethics, not spiritual aspirations, but a certain 
set of more or less similar observances: propitiation, 
prayer, praise, offerings, the request for Divine favors, 
the deprecation of Divine anger, or other misfortunes" 

— in short, Ritual. That is to say, it is the aggregate 
of the different parts of religion, of which many take 
one for the whole. But this aggregation was the re- 
sult of earnest patience and had good results. And 
it is by the careful analysis and all-round examination 



FORETHOUGHT 49 

of Ideas that we acquire valuable knowledge, and may 
learn how very few there are current which are more 
than very superficially understood — as I have shown 
in what I have said of the Will, the Imagination, 
Forethought, and many other faculties which are 
flippantly used to explain a thousand problems by 
people who can hardly define the things themselves. 



CHAPTER V 

WILL AND CHARACTER 

"And I have felt 
A Presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interposed, 
Whose dwelling is ... all in the mind of man; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things." — Wordsworth. 

As the vast majority of people are not agreed as to 
what really constitutes a Gentleman, while a great 
many seem to be practically, at least, very much 
abroad to as the nature of a Christian, so it will be 
found that, in fact, there is a great deal of difference as 
regards the Will. I have known many men and some 
women, to be credited by others, and who very much 
credited themselves, with having iron wills, when, in 
fact, their every deed, which was supposed to prove it, 
was based on brazen want of conscience. Mere want 
of principle or unscrupulousness passes with many, 
especially its possessors, for strong will. And even 
decision of character itself, as Maginn remarks, is 
often confounded with talent. "A bold woman al- 
ways gets the name of clever" — among fools — 
"though her intellect may be of a humble order, and 
her knowledge contemptible." Among the vulgar, 
especially those of greedy, griping race and blood, the 
children of the thief, a robber of the widow and or- 
phan, the scamp of the syndicate, and soulless "pro- 

50 



WILL AND CHARACTER 51 

moter" in South or North America, bold robbery, or 
Selfishness without scruple or timidity always appears 
as Will. But it is not the whole of the real thing, or 
real will in itself. When Mutius Caius Scaevola 
thrust his hand into the flames no one would have 
greatly admired his endurance if it had been found 
that the hand was naturally insensible and felt no pain. 
Nor would there have been any plaudits for Marcus 
Curtius when he leapt into the gulf, had he been so 
drunk as not to know about what he was. The will 
which depends on unscrupulousness is like the be- 
numbed hand or intoxicated soul. Quench conscience, 
as a sense of right and obligation, and you can, of 
course, do a great deal from which another would 
shrink — and therefore be called "weak-minded" by 
the fools. 

There is another type of person who imposes on the 
world and on self as being strong-minded and gifted 
with Will. It is the imperturbable cool being, always 
self-possessed, with little sympathy for emotion. In 
most cases such minds result from artificial training, 
and they break down in real trials. I do not say that 
they cannot weather a storm or a duel, or stand fire, or 
get through what novelists regard as superlative stage 
trials; but, in a moral crisis, the gentleman or lady 
whose face is all Corinthian brass is apt like that brass 
in a fire to turn pale. These folk get an immense 
amount of undeserved admiration as having Will or 
self-command, when they own what staying quality 
they have (like the preceding class) rather to a lack 
of good qualities than their inspiration. 

There are, alas! not a few who regard Will as simply 
identical with mere obstinacy, or stubbornness, the im- 



52 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

movability of the Ass, or Bull, or Bear — that is, they 
reduce it to an animal power. But, as this often or 
generally amounts in animal or man to mere insensible 
sulkiness — as far remote as possible from enlightened 
mental action, it is surely unjust to couple it with the 
Voluntary or pure intelligent Will, by which all must 
understand the very acme of active Intellect. 

Therefore it follows, that the errors, mistakes, and 
perversions which have grown about Will in popular 
opinion, like those which have accumulated round 
Christianity, are too often mistaken for the truth. 
Pure Will is, and must be by its very nature, perfectly 
free, for the more it is hindered, or hampered, or con- 
trolled in any way, the less is it independent volition. 
Therefore, pure Will, free from all restraint can only 
act in, or as, Moral Law. Acting in accordance with 
very mean, immoral, obstinate motives is, so to speak, 
obeying as a slave the devil. The purer the motive 
the purer the Will, and in very truth the purer the 
stronger, or firmer. Every man has his own idea of 
Will according to his morality — even as it is said that 
every man's conception of God is himself infinitely 
magnified — or, as Sydney Smith declared, that a 
certain small clergyman believed that Saint Paul was 
five feet two inches in height, and wore a shovel-hat. 
And here we may note that if the fundamental defini- 
tion of a gentleman be "a man of perfect integrity," 
or one who always does simply what is right, he is also 
one who possesses Will in its integrity. 

Therefore it follows that if the pure will, which is 
the basis of all firm and determined action, be a matter 
of moral conviction, it should take the first place as 
such. Napoleon the First was an exemplar of a selfish 



WILL AND CHARACTER 53 

corrupted will, Christ the perfection of Will in its 
purity. And if I can make my meaning clear, I would 
declare that he who would create within himself a 
strong and vigorous will by hypnotism or any other 
process, will be most likely to succeed, if, instead of 
aiming at developing a power by which he may subdue 
others, and make all things yield to him, or similar 
selfish aims, he shall, before all, seriously reflect on how 
he may use it to do good. For I am absolutely per- 
suaded from what I know, that he who makes Altruism 
and the happiness of others a farniliar thought to be 
coupled with every effort (even as a lamb is always 
painted with, or appointed unto, St. John), will be the 
most likely to succeed. There is something in moral 
conviction or the consciousness of right which gives a 
sense of security or a faith in success which goes far 
to secure it. Hence the willing the mind on the fol- 
lowing day to be at peace, not to yield to irritability or 
temptations to quarrel, to be pleasing and cheerful; in 
short to develop good qualities is the most easily ef- 
fected process, because where there is such self-moral- 
suasion to a good aim or end, we feel, and very justly, 
that we ought to be aided by the Deus in nobis, or an 
over-ruling Providence, whatever its form or nature 
may be. And the experimenter may be assured that if 
we can by any means will or exorcise all envy, vanity, 
folly, irritabihty, vindictiveness — in short all evil — 
out of ourselves, and supply their place with Love, we 
shall take the most effective means to secure our own 
happiness, as well as that of others. 

All of this has been repeated very often of late years 
by Altruists; but, while the doctrine is accepted both 
by Agnostics and Christians as perfect, there has been 



54 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

little done to show men how to practically realize it. 
But I have ever noted that in this Pilgrim's Progress of 
our life, those are most likely to attain to the Celestial 
City, and all its golden glories, who like Christian, 
start from the lowliest beginnings; and as the learning 
our letters leads to reading the greatest books, so the 
simplest method of directing the attention and the most 
mechanical means of developing Will, may promptly 
lead to the highest mental and moral effect. 

Prayer is generally regarded as nothing else but an 
asking or begging from a superior power. But it is 
also something which is really very different from this. 
It is a formula by means of which man realizes his faith 
and will. Tradition, and habit (of whose power I have 
spoken) or repetition, have given it the influence or 
prestige of a charm. In fact it is a spell, he who utters 
it feels assured that if seriously repeated it will be list- 
ened to, and that the Power to whom it is addressed will 
hear it. The Florentines all round me as I write, who 
repeat daily, "Pate nostro quis in celi, santi ficeturie 
nome tumme!" in words which they do not understand, 
do not pray for daily bread or anything else in the for- 
mula; they only realize that they commune with God, 
and are being good. An intelligent prayer in this light 
is the concentration of thought on a subject, or a def- 
inite realization. Therefore if when willing that to- 
morrow I shall be calm all day or void of irritation, I 
put the will or wish into a brief and clear form, it will 
aid me to promptly realize or feel what I want. And 
it will be a prayer in its reality, addressed to the Un- 
known Power or to the Will within us — an invocation, 
or a spell, according to the mind of him who makes it. 

Thus a seeker may repeat: "I will, earnestly and 



WILL AND CHARACTER 55 

deeply, that during all tomorrow I may be in a calm 
and peaceful state of mind. I will with all my heart 
that if irritating or annoying memories or images, or 
thoughts of any kind are in any way awakened, that 
they may be promptly forgotten and fade away!" 

I would advise that such a formula be got by heart 
till very familiar, to be repeated, but not mechanically, 
before falling to sleep. What is of the very utmost im- 
portance is that the operator shall feel its meaning and 
at the same time give it the impulse of Will by the 
dual process before described. This, if successfully 
achieved, will not fail (at least with most minds) to 
induce success. 

This formula, or "spell," will be sufficient for some 
time. When we feel that it is really beginning to have 
an effect, we may add to it other wishes. That is to 
say, be it clearly understood, that by repeating the will 
to be calm and peaceful, day after day, it will assuredly 
begin to come of itself, even as a pigeon which hath 
been "tolled" every day at a certain hour to find corn 
or crumbs in a certain place, will continue to go there 
even if the food cease. However, you may renew the 
first formula if you will. Then we may add gradually 
the wish to be in a bold or courageous frame of mind, so 
as to face trials, as follows: 

"I will with all my soul, earnestly and truly, that I 
may be on the morrow and all the day deeply inspired 
with courage and energy, with self-confidence and hope! 
May it lighten my heart and make me heedless of all 
annoyances and vexations which may arise! Should 
such come in my way, may I hold them at no more 
than their real value, or laugh them aside!" 

Proceed gradually and firmly through the series, 



56 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

never trying anything new, until the old has fully suc- 
ceeded. This is essential, for failure leads to dis- 
couragement. Then, in time, fully realizing all its 
deepest meaning, so as to impress the Imagination one 
may will as follows: 

"May my quickness of Perception, or Intuition, aid 
me in the business which I expect to undertake to- 
morrow. I will that my faculty of grasping at details 
and understanding their relations shall be active. May 
it draw from my memory the hidden things which will 
aid it!" 

The artist or literary man, or poet, may in time 
earnestly will to this effect: 

"I desire that my genius, my imagination, the power 
which enables man to combine and create; the poetic 
(or artist) spirit, whatever it be, may act in me to- 
morrow, awakening great thoughts and suggesting for 
them beautiful forms." 

He who expects to appear in public as an orator, as a 
lawyer pleading a case, or as a witness, will do much to 
win success, if after careful forethought or reflecting on 
what it is that he really wants, he will repeat: 

"I will that tomorrow I may speak or plead, with 
perfect self-possession and absence of all timidity or 
fear!" 

Finally, we may after long and earnest reflections on 
all which I have said, and truly not till then, resolve on 
the Masterspell to awaken the Will itself in such a form 
that it will fill out soul, as it were, unto which intent 
it is necessary to understand what Will really means to 
us in its purity and integrity. The formula may be: 

"I will that I may feel inspired with the power, aided 
by calm determination, to do what I desire, aided by a 



WILL AND CHARACTER 57 

sense of right and justice to all. May my will be 
strong and sustain me in all trials. May it inspire 
that sense of independence of strength which, allied to 
a pure conscience, is the greatest source of happiness 
on earth!" 

If the reader can master this last, he can by its aid 
progress infinitely. And with the few spells which I 
have given he will need no more, since in these he the 
knowledge, and key, and suggestion to all which may 
be required. 

Now it will appear clearly to most, that no man can 
long and steadily occupy himself with such pursuits, 
without morally benefiting by them in his waking 
hours, even if auto-hypnotism were all "mere im- 
agination," in the most frivolous sense of the word. 
For he who wills himself not to yield to irritability, can 
hardly avoid paying attention to the subject, and 
thinking thereon, check himself when vexed. And as 
I have said, what we summon by Will ere long remains 
as Habit, even as the Elves, called by a spell, remain 
in the Tower. 

Therefore it is of great importance for all people 
who take up and pursue to any degree of success this 
Art or Science, that they shall be actuated by moral 
and unselfish motives, since achieved with any other 
intent the end can only be the bringing of evil and suf- 
fering into the soul. For as the good by strengthen- 
ing the Will make themselves promptly better and 
holier, so he who increases it merely to make others 
feel his power will become with it wickeder, yea, and 
thrice accursed, for what is the greatest remedy is 
often the strongest poison. 

Step by step Science has advanced of late to the 



58 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

declaration that man thinks all over his body, or at 
least experiences those reflected sensations or emotions 
which are so strangely balanced between intellectual 
sense and sensation that we hardly know where or how 
to class them. "The sensitive plexi of our whole or- 
ganism are all either isolated or thrown into simul- 
taneous vibration when acted on by Thought." So 
the Will may be found acting unconsciously as an emo- 
tion or instinct, or developed with the highest forms of 
conscious reflection. Last of all we find it, probably as 
the result of all associated functions or powers, at the 
head of all, their Executive president. But is it "the 
exponent of correlated forces?" There indeed doctors 
differ. 

There is a very curious Italian verb, Invogliare, 
which is thus described in a Dictionary of Idioms: 
" Invogliare is to inspire a will or desire, cupidatatem 
injicere a movere. To invogliare anyone is to awake in 
him the will or the ability or capacity, an earnest 
longing or appetite, an ardent wish — alicujus rei 
cupiditatem a desiderium alicui movere — to bring into 
action a man's hankering, solicitude, anxiety, yearning, 
ardor, predilection, love, fondness and relish, or aught 
which savors of Willing." Our English word, In- 
veigle, is derived from it, but we have none precisely 
corresponding to it which so generally sets forth the 
idea of inspiring a will in another person. "Sug- 
gestion" is far more general and vague. Now if a 
man could thus in-will himself to good or moral pur- 
pose, he would assume a new position in life. We all 
admit that most human beings have defects or faults of 
which they would gladly be freed (however incor- 
rigible they appear to be), but they have not the 



WILL AND CHARACTER 59 

patience to effect a cure, to keep to the resolve, or pre- 
vent it from fading out of sight. For a vast propor- 
tion of all minor sins, or those within the law, there is 
no cure sought. The offender says and believes, "It 
is too strong for me" — and yet tnese small unpunished 
offenses cause a thousand times more suffering than all 
the great crimes. 

Within a generation, owing to the great increase of 
population, prosperity and personal comfort, nervous 
susceptibility has also gained in extent, but there has 
been no check to petty abuse of power, selfishness, 
which always comes out in some form of injustice or 
wrong, or similar vexations. Nay, what with the dis- 
proportionate growth of vulgar wealth, this element has 
rapidly increased, and it would really seem as if the 
plague must spread ad infinitum, unless some means 
can be found to invogliare and inspire the offenders 
with a sense of their sins, and move them to reform. 
And it is more than probable that if all who are at 
heart sincerely willing to reform their morals and man- 
ners could be brought to keep their delinquencies be- 
fore their consciousness in the very simple manner 
which I have indicated, the fashion or mode might at 
least be inaugurated. For it is not so much a moral 
conviction, or an appeal to common sense, which is 
needed (as writers on ethics all seem to think), but 
some practical art of keeping men up to the mark in 
endeavoring to reform, or to make them remember it 
all day long, since "out of sight out of mind" is the 
devil's greatest help with weak minds. 



CHAPTER VI 

SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT 

"Anima non nascitur sed fit," ut ait. — Tertullianus. 

"Post quam loquuti sumus de anima rationali, intellectuali 
(immortali) et quia ad inferiores descendimus jam gradus animal, 
scilicet animre mortalis qua animalium est." 

— Petrus Gregorius Tholosanus. 

It must have struck many readers that the action of 
a mind under hypnotic influence, be it of another or of 
self, involves strange questions as regards Conscious- 
ness. For it is very evident from recorded facts, that 
people can actually reason and act without waking con- 
sciousness, in a state of mind which resembles instinct, 
which is a kind of cerebration, or acting under habits 
and impressions supplied by memory and formed by 
practice, but not according to what we understand by 
Reason or Judgment. 

All things in nature have their sleep or rest, night is 
the sleep of the world, death the repose of Nature or 
Life — the solid temples, the great globe itself, dissolve 
to awaken again; so man hath in him, as it were, a 
company of workmen, some of whom labor by day, 
while others watch by night, during which time they, 
unseen, have their fantastic frolics known as dreams. 
The Guardian or Master of the daily hours, appears in 
a great measure to conform his action closely to average 
duties of life, in accordance with those of all other men. 
He picks out from the millions of images or ideas in 

60 



SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT 61 

the memory, uses and becomes familiar with a certain 
number, and lets the rest sleep. This master or active 
agent is probably himself a Master-Idea — the result 
of the correlative action of all the others, a kind of con- 
sensus made personal, an elected Queen Bee, as I have 
otherwise described him or her. 

But he is not the only thinker — there are all over 
the body ganglions which act by a kind of fluid instinct, 
born of repetition, and when the tired master even 
drowses or nods, or falls into a brown study, then a 
marvelously curious mental action begins to show itself, 
for dreams at once flicker and peer and steal dimly 
about him. This is because the waking consciousness 
is beginning to shut out the world and its set of ideas. 

So consistent is the system that even if Waking Rea- 
son abstract itself, not to sleep, but to think on one 
subject such as writing a poem or inventing a machine, 
certain affinities will sleep or dreams begin to show 
themselves. When Genius is really at Work, it sweeps 
along, as it were, in a current, albeit it has enough 
reason left to also use the rudder and oars, or spread 
and manage a sail. The reason for the greater fullness 
of unusual images and associations (i.e., the action of 
genius) during the time when one is bent on intellectual 
invention is that the more the waking conscious Reason 
drowses or approaches to sleep, the more do many 
images in Memory awaken and begin to shyly open the 
doors of their cells and peep out. 

In the dream we also proceed, or rather drift, loosely 
on a current, but are without oars, rudder, or sail. 
We are hurtled against, or hurried away from the 
islands of Images or Ideas, that is to say, all kinds of 
memories, and our course is managed or impelled, or 



62 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

guided by tricky water-sprites, whose minds are all on 
mischief bent or only idle merriment. In any case 
they conduct us blindly and wildly from isle to isle, 
sometimes obeying a far cry which comes to them 
through the mist — some echoing signal of our waking 
hours. So in a vision ever on we go! 

That is to say that even while we dream there is an 
unconscious cerebration or voluntarily exerted power 
loosely and irregularly imitating by habit, something 
like the action of our waking hours, especially its 
brown studies and fancies in drowsy reveries or play. 

It seems to me as if this sleep-master or mistress — 
I prefer the latter — who attends to our dreams may 
be regarded as Instinct on the loose, for like instinct 
she acts without conscious reasoning. She carries out, 
or realizes, trains of thought, or sequences with little 
comparison or deduction. Yet within her limits she 
can do great work, and when we consider, we shall find 
that by following mere Law she has effected a great, 
nay, an immense, deal, which we attribute entirely to 
forethought or Reason. As all this is closely allied to 
the action of the mind when hypnotized, it deserves 
further study. 

Now it is a wonderful reflection that as we go back 
in animated nature from man to insects, we find self- 
conscious Intellect or Reason based on Reflection dis- 
appear, and Instinct taking its place. Yet Instinct in 
its marvelous results, such as ingenuity of adaptation, 
often far surpasses what semi-civilized man could do. 
Or it does the same things as man, only in an entirely 
different way which is not as yet understood. Only 
occasionally some one tells a wonderful story of a bird, 
a dog or a cat, and then asks, "Was not this reason?" 



SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT 63 

What it was, in a great measure, was an unconscious 
application of memory or experience. Bees and ants 
and birds often far outdo savage men in ingenuity of 
construction. The red Indians in their persistent use 
of flimsy, cheerless bark wigwams, were far behind the 
beaver or oriole as regards dwellings; in this respect 
the Indian indicated mere instinct of a low order, as 
all do who live in circles of mere tradition. 

Now to advance what seems a paradox, it is evident 
that even what we regard as inspired genius comes to 
man in a great measure from Instinct, though as I 
noted before it is aided by reflection. As the young 
bird listens to its mother and then sings till as a grown 
nightingale it pours forth a rich flood of varying 
melody; so the poet or musician follows masters and 
models, and then, like them, creates, often progressing, 
but is never entirely spontaneous or original. When the 
artist thinks too little he lacks sense, when he thinks 
too much he loses fire. In the very highest and most 
strangely mysterious poetical flights of Shelley and 
Keats, or Wordsworth, I find the very same Instinct 
which inspires the skylark and nightingale, but more 
or less allied to and strengthened by Thought or Con- 
sciousness. If human Will or Wisdom alone directed 
all our work, then every man who had mere patience 
might be a great original genius, and it is indeed true 
that Man can do inconceivably more in following and 
imitating genius than has ever been imagined. How- 
ever, thus far the talent which enables a man to write 
such a passage as that of Tennyson, 

"The tides of Music's golden sea 
Setting towards Eternity," 



64 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

results from a development of Instinct, or an intuitive 
perception of the Beautiful, such as Wordsworth be- 
lieved existed in all things which enjoy sunshine, life, 
and air. The poet himself cannot explain the processes, 
though he may be able to analyze in detail how or why 
he made or found a thousand other things. 

It is not only true that Genius originates in some- 
thing antecedent to conscious reflection or intellect, 
but also that men have produced marvellous works of 
art almost without knowing it, while others have shown 
the greatest incapacity to do so after they had de- 
veloped an incredible amount of knowledge. Thus 
Mr. Whistler reminded Ruskin that when the world 
had its greatest artists, there were no critics. 

And it is well to remember that while the Greeks in 
all their glory of Art and Poetry were unquestionably 
rational or consciously intelligent, there was not among 
them the thousandth part of the anxious worrying, the 
sentimental self-seeking and examination, or the Intro- 
version which worms itself in and out of, and through 
and through, all modern work, action and thought, 
even as mercury in an air-pump will permeate the 
hardest wood. For the Greeks worked more in the 
spirit of Instinct; that is, more according to certain 
transmitted laws and ideas than we realize — albeit 
this tradition was of a very high order. We have lost 
Art because we have not developed tradition, but have 
immensely increased consciousness, or reflection, out 
of proportion to art. It was from India and Egypt in 
a positive form that Man drew the poison of sentimental 
Egoism which became comparative in the Middle Ages 
and superlative in this our time. 

It is very evident that as soon as men become self- 



SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT 65 

conscious of great work, or cease to work for the sake of 
enjoying Art, or its results, and turn all their attention 
to the genius or cleverness, or character or style, self, 
et cetera, of the artist, or of themselves, a decadence sets 
in, as there did after the Renaissance, when knowledge 
or enjoyment of Art was limited, and guided by famil- 
iarity with names and schools and "manners," or the 
like, far more than by real beauty in itself. 

Now, out of all this which I have said on Art, strange 
conclusions may be drawn, the first being that even 
without self-conscious Thought or excess of Intellect, 
there can be a Sense of Enjoyment in any or every 
organism, also a further development of memory of 
that enjoyment, and finally a creation of buildings, 
music and song, with no reflection, in animals, and very 
little in Man. And when Man gets beyond working 
with simple Nature and begins to think chiefly about 
himself, his Art, as regards harmony with Nature, 
deteriorates. 

We do not sufficiently reflect on the fact that Natura 
naturans, or the action of Nature (or simply following 
Tradition), may, as is the case of Transition Archi- 
tecture, involve the creation of marvelously ingenious 
and beautiful works, and the great enjoyment of them 
by Instinct alone. It is not possible for ordinary man 
to even understand this now in all its fullness. He is 
indeed trying to do so — but it is too new for his com- 
prehension. But a time will come when he will per- 
ceive that his best work has been done unconsciously, 
or under influences of which he was ignorant. 

Hypnotism acts entirely by suggestion, and he who 
paints or does other work entirely according to Tradi- 
tion, also carries out what is or has been suggested to 



66 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

him. Men of earlier times who thus worked for 
thousands of years like the Egyptians in one style, 
were guided by the faith that it had been begun by the 
Creator or God. 

For men cannot conceive of creation as separate from 
pre-determined plan or end, and all because they can- 
not understand that Creative innate force, potentia, 
must have some result, or that the simplest Law once 
set agoing awakens, acquires strength in going and 
develops great Laws, which, with an all-susceptible or 
capable material to work on, may, or must, create in- 
finite ingenuities, so that in time there may be an or- 
ganic principle with sentiency, and yet no Will, save in 
its exponents, or working to end or aim, but ever tend- 
ing to further unfolding "a seizing and giving the fire 
of the living" ever onwards into Eternity, in which 
there may be a million times more perfect "mind" 
than we can now grasp. 

Now, having for many years attempted at least to 
familiarize myself with the aspect or sound, of this 
problem, though I could not solve it, it seems at last to 
be natural enough that even matter (which so many 
persist in regarding as a kind of dust or something re- 
sistant to the touch, but which I regard as infinite 
millions of degrees more subtle), may think just as well 
as it may act in Instinct. It is, indeed, absurd to ad- 
mit souls to idiots or savages, who have not the sense 
to five as comfortably as many animals, and yet deny 
it to the latter. When we really become familiar 
with the idea, it appears sensible enough. But its 
opponents do not become familiar with it, it irritates 
them, they call it Atheistic, although it is nothing of 
the kind, just as if we were to say that a man who 



SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT 67 

bravely and nobly pursued his way in life, doing his 
duty because it was his duty, and giving no thoughts 
as to future reward or punishment, must needs want 
soul or be an Atheist. 

If all men were perfectly good, they would act mor- 
ally and instinctively, without consciousness of be- 
having well, and if we felt a high ideal of Art it would 
be just the same. When Art was natural men never 
signed their names to their work, but now the Name 
takes precedence of the picture. 

Therefore, as we go backward into the night of 
things, we find, though we forget it all the time, that 
Instinct or the living in the Spirit of Law, had its 
stars or planets which shone more brilliantly than now, 
at least in Faith. Thus, there are two sources of Crea- 
tion or Action, both based on Evolution, one being un- 
conscious and guided by Natural Law, and the other 
which is conscious and grows out of the first. Hence 
cogito ergo sum, which well-nigh all men really un- 
derstand as cogito, ergo sum Deus. Or we may say 
that they assume 

"Because J think, then God must think like me!" 

Now to come to Hypnotic thought, or suggested 
mental action. I would infer that, according to what 
I have said, there may be two kinds of mentality, or 
working of the mind — the one under certain con- 
ditions as effective or resultant as the other; the first 
being — as it was in the order of time — Unconscious 
or Instinctive; the other, conscious and self-observant. 

For the man who built a Romanesque Cathedral 
worked by the suggestiveness of minds which went be- 
fore him, or Tradition. He was truly, as it were, in a 
kind of slumber; indeed, all life was more or less of a 



68 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

waking dream in those dim, strange days. "Millions 
marched forth to death scarce knowing why," all be- 
cause they were told to do so — they felt that they 
must do it, and they did it. "Like turkeys led by a 
red rag," says Cablyle. And the red rag and the 
turkey are an illustration of Hypnotism in one of the 
books thereon. Instinct is Hypnotism. 

Now I have found that by suggesting to oneself be- 
fore sleep, or inducing self by Will or Forethought to 
work gladly and unweariedly the next day, we do not 
think about self or the quality of what we do to any 
degree like what we would in working under ordinary 
conditions. Truly it is not thoroughgoing or infallible 
in all cases, but then it must be helped by a little wide- 
awake self-conscious will. But this is certainly true, 
that we can turn out better work when we urge our 
creative power to awake in the morn and act or aid, 
than if we do not. 

"For there are many angels at our call, 
And many blessed spirits who are bound 
To lend their aid in every strait and turn; 
And elves to fly the errands of the soul, 
And fairies all too glad to give us help, 
If we but know how to pronounce the spell 
Which calls them unto us in every need." 

That spell I have shown or explained clearly enough. 

And, finally, to recapitulate, Instinct in its earlier or 
simpler form is the following laws of Nature which are 
themselves formed by motive laws. In Man the living 
according to Tradition is instinct of a higher order, 
and the one or the other is merely being ruled by Sug- 
gestion. The more free Will is developed and guided 
by reflection, or varied tradition and experience, the 
less instinct and the more intellect will there be. 



CHAPTER VTI 

MEMORY CULTURE 

'Twas wisely said by Plato, when he called 
Memory "the mother of the Intellect," 
For knowledge is to wisdom what his realm 
Is to a monarch — that o'er which he rules; 
And he who hath the Will can ever win 
Such empire to himself — Will can do all. 

There is nothing in which the might of the Will can 
be so clearly set forth as in the making of memory. By 
means of it, as is fully proved by millions of examples, 
man can render his power of recollection almost in- 
finite. And lest the reader may think that I here ex- 
aggerate, I distinctly assert that I never knew a man of 
science, familiar with certain facts which I shall re- 
peat, who ever denied its literal truth. 

As I have already stated, there are two methods, and 
only two, by means of which we can retain images, 
facts, or ideas. One of these is that which in many 
varied forms, which are all the same in fact, is described 
in the old Artes Memorandi, or Arts of Memory. There 
are several hundreds of these, and to the present day 
there are professors who give instructions according to 
systems of the same kind. These are all extremely 
plausible, being based on Association of ideas, and in 
most cases the pupil makes great progress for a short 
time. Thus, we can remember the French for bread, 
pain, Italian Pane, by thinking of the pan in which 

69 



70 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

bread is baked, or the difficult name of the inventor, 
Ssczepanik (pronounced nearly she-panic) by thinking 
of a crowd of frightened women, and which I remem- 
bered by the fact that pane is the Slavonian for Mr. 
or Sir. For there is such a tendency of ideas to ag- 
glutinate, and so become more prominent, as we can 
see two bubbles together in a pool more readily than 
one, that we can very soon learn to recall many images 
in this way. 

But after a time a certain limit is reached which 
most minds cannot transgress. Volapuk was easy so 
long as, like Pidgin-English, it contained only a few 
hundred words and no grammar. But now that it has 
a dictionary of 4,000 terms and a complete grammar it 
is as hard to learn as Spanish. It invariably comes to 
pass in learning to remember by the Associative method 
that after a time images are referred to images, and 
these to others again, so that they form entire categories 
in which the most vigorous mind gets lost. 

The other method is that of direct Memory guided by 
Will, in which no regard is paid to Association, espe- 
cially in the beginning. Thus to remember anything, 
or rather to learn how to do so, we take something which 
is very easy to retain — the easier the better — be it a 
jingling nursery rhyme, a proverb, or a text. Let this 
be learned to perfection, backwards and forwards, or 
by permutation of words, and repeated the next day. 
Note that the repetition or reviewing is of more impor- 
tance than aught else. 

On the second day add another proverb or verse to 
the preceding, and so on, day by day, always reviewing 
and never learning another syllable until you are sure 
that you perfectly or most familiarly retain all which 



MEMORY CULTURE 71 

you have memorized. The result will be, if you perse- 
vere, that before long you will begin to find it easier to 
remember anything. This is markedly the case as 
regards the practice of reviewing, which is invariably 
hard at first, but which becomes ere long habitual and 
then easy. 

I cannot impress it too vividly on the mind of the 
reader, that he cannot make his exercises too easy. If 
he finds that ten fines a day are too much, let him re- 
duce them to five, or two, or one, or even a single word, 
but learn that, and persevere. When the memory be- 
gins to improve under this process, the tasks may, of 
course, be gradually increased. 

An uncle of the present Khedive of Egypt told me 
that when he was learning English, he at first com- 
mitted to memory fifty words a day, but soon felt him- 
self compelled to very much reduce the number in or- 
der to permanently remember what he acquired. One 
should never overdrive a willing horse. 

Where there is a teacher with youthful pupils, he can 
greatly aid the process of mere memorizing, by explain- 
ing the text, putting questions as to its meaning, or 
otherwise awakening an interest in it. After a time 
the pupils may proceed to verbal memorizing, which 
consists of having the text simply read or repeated to 
them. In this way, after a year or eighteen months 
of practice, most people can actually remember a 
sermon or lecture, word for word. 

This was the process which was discovered, I may 
say simultaneously, by David Kay and myself, as our 
books upon it appeared at almost the same time. But 
since then I have modified my plan, and made it in- 
finitely easier, and far more valuable, as will be ap- 



72 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

parent to all, by the application of the principles laid 
down in this book. For while, according to the origi- 
nal views, Memory depended on Will and Perseverance, 
there was no method indicated by any writer how these 
were to be created, nor was energetic Forethought 
considered as amounting to more than mere Intention. 

Now would I say that having the task selected, first 
give energetic forethought, or a considerate determina- 
tion to master this should precede all attempts to learn, 
by everybody, young or old. And when the lesson is 
mastered, let it be repeated with earnestness and seri- 
ous attention before going to sleep, with the Will that 
it shall be remembered on the morrow. And it will be 
found that this process not only secures the memory 
desired, but also greatly facilitates the whole course 
and process. 

It is to be noted that by this, or any process, we do 
not remember everything, but only what is first con- 
sidered and measured by Forethought. Also that by 
it the Memory is never overcharged at the expense of 
Intellect, for the exertion of will in any way strengthens 
the mind. To explain the immense power which this 
all implies, I observe : 

That previous to the invention of printing, it was 
usual for students to get their text-books by heart. 
Thus in India, according to Max Muller, the entire 
text and glosses of Panini's Sanskrit grammar were 
handed down orally for 350 years before being com- 
mitted to writing. This work is about equal in size 
to the Bible. 

There are Indian priests now living who can repeat 
accurately the whole poems of the Mahabarata of 
300,000 slokas or lines. 



MEMORY CULTURE 73 

That these incredible feats were the result of a sys- 
tem of memorizing similar to what I have explained. 

That the Guzlas or Slavonian minstrels of the present 
day have by heart with remarkable accuracy immensely 
long epic poems. I have found the same among Al- 
gonkin Indians, whose sagas or mythic legends are in- 
terminable, and yet are committed word by word 
accurately. 

I have heard in England of a lady ninety years of 
age whose memory was miraculous, and of which ex- 
traordinary instances are narrated by her friends. She 
attributed it to the fact that when young she had been 
made to learn a verse from the Bible every day, and 
then constantly review it. As her memory improved, 
she learned more, the result being that in the end she 
could repeat from memory any verse or chapter called 
for in the whole Scripture. The habit had marvellously 
developed her intelligence as well as memory. 

Now I confidently declare that if this lady had sub- 
mitted what she learned to the suggestive-will process 
she could have spared herself half the labor. And it is 
to be observed that as in time the labor of reviewing 
and the faculty of promptly recalling becomes easier 
and easier till it is simply mechanical, so the memoriz- 
ing by suggestion becomes more facile until it is, so to 
speak, only a form. And as it becomes easier the fore- 
sight strengthens till it wields an absolute power. 

If the reader is interested in this subject of develop- 
ing the memory, I would refer him to my work on 
Practical Education in which it is discussed with ref- 
erence to recalling objects through all the Senses. 

No one who has made even a very slight trial of the 
process of impressing on the mind before sleep some- 



74 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

thing which must be remembered, can fail to be con- 
vinced ere long of the truth that there is in it a marvel- 
lous power which will with easy and continued practice 
enable him to recall whatever he pleases. It follows as 
a matter of course, that this would be of incredible 
value in education, but notwithstanding the vast dis- 
cussion of this subject which is ever going on, it does 
not seem to occur to a living man that we should de- 
velop and train the mental faculties, such as memory 
and quickness of perception, as well as set them to hard 
work. 

It is also safe to say that there is not a man living 
who was educated from boyhood upon this principle, 
and yet I am confident that no scientist in existence, 
knowing the facts on which my statement is based, will 
deny that it is as easy to develop the mental factors 
alluded to, as to learn a language or play on the piano. 
It is not a matter of theory but of facts. Millions of 
men have in the past acquired the faculty of being able 
to repeat and remember whatever they heard, if they 
earnestly attended to it. Earnest attention in this 
case means a strong exercise of forethought, or de- 
termination to an end or given purpose. In Iceland, 
that which has since become the English common law, 
was at an early date very fully developed, without any 
books or writing. And there were lawyers who had 
by heart all the laws, and incredible numbers of prec- 
edents, as appears from several sagas, among others, 
that of The Burnt Njall. 

Our present system of Education is that of building 
houses without foundations. No one suspects or 
dreams what mighty powers there are latent in us all, 
or how easily they may be developed. It would not 



MEMORY CULTURE 75 

be so reprehensible if men entirely neglected the sub- 
ject, but they are always working hard and spending 
millions on the old system, and will not even make the 
least experiment to test a new theory. One reason for 
this is the old belief that we are all born with a certain 
quantum of "gifts," as for example memory, capacity, 
patience, et cetera, all more or less limited, and in reality 
not to be enlarged or improved. The idea is natural, 
because we see that there are very great differences, 
hereditary or otherwise, in children. But it is false. 
So we go to work to fill up the quantum of memory as 
soon as possible by violent cramming, and in like man- 
ner tax to the utmost all the mental faculties without 
making the least effort to prepare, enlarge, or strengthen 
them. 

I shall not live to see it, but a time will come when 
this preparation of the mental faculties will be regarded 
as the basis of all education. 

To recapitulate in a few words. When we desire to 
fix anything in the memory we can do so by repeating 
it to ourselves before we go to sleep, accompanying it 
with the resolution to remember it in future. We must 
not in the beginning set ourselves any but very easy 
tasks, and the practice must be steadily continued. 

It has been often said that a perfect memory is less 
of a blessing than the power of oblivion. Thus The- 
mistocles (who, according to Cato, as cited by 
Cicero, knew the names and faces of every man in 
Athens) having offered to teach some one the art of 
memory, received for reply, "Rather teach me how to 
forget" — esse facturum si se oblivisci quae vellet, quam 
si meminisse docuisset. And Claudius had such an 
enviable power in the latter respect that immediately 



76 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

after he had put to death his wife Messalina, he for- 
got all about it, asking, "Cur domina non veniret?" — 
"Why the Missus didn't come?" — while on the fol- 
lowing day, after condemning several friends to death, 
he sent invitations to them to come and dine with him. 
And again, there are people who have, as it were, two 
memories, one good, the other bad, as was the case 
with Calvisius Sabrinus, who could recall anything 
in literature, but never remembered the names of his 
own servants, or even his friends. But he got over the 
difficulty by naming his nine attendants after the nine 
Muses, while he called his intimates Homer, Hesiod, 
and so on. This scholar would truly seem to have 
drunk of the two fountains sacred to Trophonius, by 
the river Orchomenus in Bceotia, one of which be- 
stowed memory and the other oblivion. And like 
unto them is the power of the Will, aided by Fore- 
thought and Suggestion, for while it properly directs 
and aids us to remember what we will, it per contra also 
helps us to forget. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CONSTRUCTIVE FACULTIES 

"He who hath learned a single art, 
Can thrive, I ween, in any part." 

— German Proverb. 

" He would have taught you how you might employ 
Yourself; and many did to him repair, 
And, certes, not in vain; he had inventions rare." 

— Wordsworth. 

When I had, after many years of study and research 
in England and on the Continent, developed the 
theory that all practical, technical education of youth 
should be preceded by a light or easy training on an 
aesthetic basis, or the minor arts, I for four years, to 
test the scheme, was engaged in teaching in the city 
of Philadelphia, every week in separate classes, two 
hundred children, besides a number of ladies. These 
were from the public schools of the city. The total 
number of these public pupils was then 110,000. 

My pupils were taught, firstly, simple outline deco- 
rative design with drawing at the same time; after 
this, according to sex, easy embroidery, wood carving, 
modeling in clay, leather-work, carpentering, inlaying, 
repousse modelling in clay, porcelain painting, and 
other small arts. Nearly all of the pupils, who were 
from ten to sixteen years of age, acquired two or three, 
if not all, of these arts, and then very easily found 
employment in factories or fabrics, etc. 

77 



78 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

Many people believed that this was all waste of 
money and time, and, quite unknown to me, at their 
instigation an inquiry was made of all the teachers in 
the public schools as to the standing of my art pupils 
in their other classes, it being confidently anticipated 
that they would be found to have fallen behind. And 
the result of the investigation was that the two hundred 
were in advance of the one hundred and ten thousand 
in every branch — geography, arithmetic, history, and 
so on. 

It was not remarkable, because boys and girls who 
had, at an average age of twelve or thirteen, learned 
the principles of design and its practical application to 
several kinds of handiwork, and knew the differences 
and characteristics of Gothic, Arabesque, or Greek 
patterns, all developed a far greater intelligence in 
general thought and conversation than others. They 
had at least one topic on which they could converse in- 
telligently with any grown-up person, and in which 
they were really superior to most. They soon found 
this out. I have often been astonished in listening to 
their conversation among themselves to hear how well 
they discussed art. They all well knew at least one 
thing, which is far from being known among aesthetes 
in London, which is that in Decorative Art, however 
you may end in all kinds of mixtures of styles, you 
must at least begin with organic development, and not 
put roots or flowers at both ends of a branch or vine. 

The secret of it all is that those who from an early 
age develop the constructive faculty (especially if this 
be done in a pleasing, easy manner, with agreeable 
work) also develop with it the Intellect, and that very 
rapidly to a very remarkable degree. There are 



THE CONSTRUCTIVE FACULTIES 79 

reasons for this. Drawing when properly taught 
stimulates visual perception or eye memory; this is 
strikingly the case when the pupil has a model placed 
in one room, and, after studying it, goes into another 
room to reproduce it from memory. Original design, 
which when properly taught is learned with incredible 
ease by all children, stimulates observation to a re- 
markable degree. The result of such education is to 
develop a great general quickness of perception and 
thought. 

Now, be it observed, that if anyone desires to learn 
design or any art, it may be greatly facilitated by the 
application to it of Will and Foresight, and in the 
beginning, Self-Suggestion. He who understands the 
three as one, sees in it a higher or more energetic kind 
of self-discipline than most people practise. In the end 
they come to the same as a vigorous effort of the 
Will. 

Thus, having mastered the very easy principles of 
design which govern all organic development or vege- 
table growth (as set forth in a plant with roots, off- 
shoots, or crochets, and end ornaments, flowers, or 
finials, with the circle, spiral, and offshooting orna- 
ments; rings made into vines and wave patterns; all 
of which can be understood in an hour with diagrams), 
let the beginner attempt a design, the simpler the bet- 
ter, and reproduce it from memory. If on going to bed 
he will impress it on his mind that on the morrow he 
would like to make more designs, or that it must be 
done, he will probably feel the impulse and succeed. 
This is the more likely because patterns impress them- 
selves very vividly on the memory or imagination, and 
when studied are easily recalled after a little practice. 



80 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

The manner in which most artists form an idea, or 
project their minds to a plan or invention, be it a statue 
or picture; and the way they think it over and antici- 
pate it — very often actually seeing the picture in a 
finished state in imagination — all amounts to fore- 
sight and hypnotic preparation in a crude, imperfect 
form. If any artist who is gifted with resolution and 
perseverance will simply make trial of the method here 
recommended, he will assuredly find that it is a great 
aid to Invention. 

It is probable that half the general average clever- 
ness of men is due to their having learned, as boys, 
games, or the art of making something, or mending and 
repairing. In any case, if they had learned to use their 
hands and their inventiveness or adaptability, they 
would have been the better for it. That the innumer- 
able multitude of people who can do nothing of the 
kind, and who take no real interest in anything except 
spending money and gossiping, are to be really pitied, 
is true. Some of them once had minds — and these 
are the most pitiful or pitiable of all. It is to be re- 
gretted that novels are, with rare exceptions, written 
to amuse this class, and limit themselves strictly to 
"life," never describing with real skill, so as to interest 
anything which would make fife worth living for — 
except love — which is good to a certain extent, but 
not absolutely all in all, save to the eroto-maniac. 
And as most novelists now pretend to instruct and 
convey ideas, beyond mere story-telling, or even being 
"interesting," which means the love or detective busi- 
ness, I would suggest to some of these writers that the 
marvelous latent powers of the human mind, and also 
some art which does not consist of the names and 



THE CONSTRUCTIVE FACULTIES 81 

guide-book praises of a few great painters and the 
Renaissance rechaujfee would be a refreshing novelty. 

The ancient Romans were thoroughly persuaded that 
Exercitatione et usu (by exercising the physical facul- 
ties in every way; by which they meant arts as well 
as gymnastics; and by making such practice habitual) 
they could develop intellect, in illustration of which 
Lycurgus once took two puppies of the same litter, 
and had the one brought up to hunt, while the other 
was nursed at home in all luxury; and when grown, 
and let loose, the one caught a hare, while the other 
yelped and ran away. So the word handy, in old 
English hend, meaning quick, alert, or gifted with 
prompt perception, is derived from knowing how to use 
the hands. Brusonius ("Facetiae," Lyons, 1562) has 
collected a great number of classic anecdotes to il- 
lustrate this saying. 

Recapitulation. Those who desire to become artists, 
can greatly facilitate their work, if beginning for ex- 
ample with very simple outline decorative designs, and 
having learned the principles on which they are con- 
structed, they would repeat or revise them to them- 
selves before sleep, resolving to remember them. 
The same principle is applicable to all kinds of designs, 
with the proviso that they be at first very easy. This 
is generally a very successful process. 

Forethought, or the projection of conception or at- 
tention with will, is a marvelous preparation for all 
kinds of art work. He who can form the habit of see- 
ing a picture mentally before he paints it, has an in- 
credible advantage, and will spare himself much labor 
and painting out. 



CHAPTER IX 

FASCINATION 

"Quserit Franciscus Valesius, Delrio, Gulierrus, et alii, unde 
vulgaris ilia fascini nata sit opinio de oculo fascinante visione et 
ore fascinando laudando." — De Fascinatione Fatatus. a.d. 1677. 

I have in Chapter Fifth mentioned several of the 
subjects to attain which the Will may be directed by 
the aid of self-hypnotism, preceded by Forethought. 
If the reader has carefully studied what I have said 
and not merely skimmed it, he must have preceived 
that if the power be fully acquired, it makes, as it 
were, new existence for its possessor, opening to him 
boundless fields of action by giving him the enviable 
power to acquire interest — that is to say agreeable or 
profitable occupation — in whatever he pleases. In 
further illustration of which I add the following: 

To recall bygone memories or imperfectly remembered 
sensations, scenes, and experiences or images. 

This is a difficult thing to describe, and no wonder, 
since it forms the greatest and most trying task of all 
poets to depict that which really depends for its charm 
on association, emotion, and a chiaroscuro of the feel- 
ings. We have all delightful reminiscences which make 
ridiculous Dante's assertion that 

"There is no greater grief than to recall in pain 
The happy days gone by;" 

which, if true, would make it a matter of regret that we 
ever had a happy hour. However, I assume that it is 

82 



FASCINATION 83 

a great pleasure to recall, even in grief, beautiful by- 
gone scenes and joys, and trust that the reader has a 
mind healthy and cheerful enough to do the same. 

What constitutes a charm in many memories is often 
extremely varied. Darkly shaded rooms with shutters 
closed in on an intensely hot American summer day. 
Chinese matting on the floors — the mirrors and picture 
frames covered with tulle — silence — the scent of mag- 
nolias all over the house — the presence of loved ones 
now long dead and gone — all of these combined form 
to me memory-pictures in which nothing can be spared. 
The very scent of the flowers is like musk in a perfume 
or "bouquet" of odors — it fixes them well, or renders 
them permanent. And it is all like a beautiful vivid 
dream. If I had my life to live over again I would do 
frequently and with great care, what I thought of too 
late, and now practice feebly — I would strongly im- 
press on my mind and very often recall, many such 
scenes, pictures, times, or memories. Very few people 
do this. Hence in all novels and poems, especially 
the French, description generally smacks of imitation 
and mere manufacture. It passes for "beautiful writ- 
ing," but there is always something in really unaf- 
fected truth from nature which is caught by the true 
critic. I read lately a French romance which is much 
admired, of this manufactured or second-hand kind. 
Every third page was filled with the usual botany, 
rocks, skies, colors, fore and backgrounds — "all very 
fine" — but in the whole of it not one of those little 
touches of truth which stir us so in Shakespeare, 
make us smile in Herrick or naive Pepys, or raise our 
hearts in Wordsworth. These were true men. 

To be true we must be far more familiar with Nature 



84 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

than with scene painting or photographs, and to do 
this, we must, so to speak, fascinate ourselves with 
pictures in life, glad memories of golden hours, rock 
and river and greenwood tree. We must also banish 
resolutely from our past all recollections of enemies 
and wrongs, troubles and trials, and throw all our 
heart into doing so. Forgive and forget all enmities 
— those of Misfortune and Fate being included. De- 
pend upon it that the brighter you can make your 
Past the pleasanter will be your Future. 

This is just the opposite to what most people do, 
hence the frequent and fond quotation of pessimistic 
poetry. It is all folly, and worse. One result is that 
in modern books of travel the only truthful or vivid de- 
scriptions are of sufferings of all kinds, even down to 
inferior luncheons and lost hair brushes. Their joys 
they sketch with an indifferent skill, like Heine's 
monk, who made rather a poor description of Heaven, 
but was " gifted in Hell," which he depicted with dread- 
ful vigor. 

I find it a great aid to recall what I can of bygone 
beautiful associations, and then sleep on them with a 
resolve that they shall recur in complete condition. 
He who will thus resolutely clean up his past fife and 
clear away from it all sorrow as well as he can, and re- 
furnish it with beautiful memories, or make it better 
coute que coute will do himself more good than many a 
doleful moral adviser ever dreamed of. This is what I 
mean by self-fascination — the making, as it were, by 
magic art, one's own past and self more charming than 
we ever deemed it possible to be. We thus fascinate 
ourselves. Those who believe that everything which 
is bygone has gone to the devil are in a wretched error. 



FASCINATION 85 

The future is based on the past — yes, made from it, 
and that which was never dies, but returns to bless or 
grieve. We mostly wrong our past bitterly, and bit- 
terly does it revenge itself. But it is like the Hon of 
Androcles, it remembers those who treat it kindly. 
"And lo! when Androcles was thrown to the Hon to 
be devoured, the beast lay down at his feet, and licked 
his hands." Yes, we have all our lions! 

To master difficult meanings. It has often befallen 
me, when I was at the University, or later when study- 
ing law, to exert my mind to grasp, and all in vain, some 
problem in mathematics or a puzzling legal question, 
or even to remember some refactory word in a foreign 
language which would not remain in the memory. 
After a certain amount of effort in many of these cases, 
further exertion is injurious, the mind or receptive 
power seems to be seized — as if nauseated — with 
spasmodic rejections. In such a case pass the question 
by, but on going to bed, think it over and will to 
understand it on the morrow. It will often suffice to 
merely desire that it shall recur in more intelligible 
form — in which case, nota bene — if let alone it will 
obey. This is as if we had a call to make tomorrow, 
when, as we know, the memory will come at its right 
time of itself, especially if we employ Forethought or 
special pressure. 

When I reflect on what I once endured from this 
cause, and how greatly it could have been relieved or 
alleviated, I feel as if I could beg, with all my heart, 
every student or teacher of youth to seriously experi- 
ment on what I set forth in this book. It is also to be 
observed, especially by metaphysicians and mental 
philosophers, that a youth who has shown great in- 



86 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

difference to, let us say mathematics, if he has mani- 
fested an aptitude for philosophy or languages, will be 
in all cases certain to excel in the former, if he can be 
brought to make a good beginning in it. A great 
many cases of bad, i.e., indifferent scholarship, are 
due to bad teaching of the rudiments by adults who 
took no interest in their pupils, and therefore inspired 
none. 

To determine what course to follow in any Emergency. 
Many a man often wishes with all his heart that he 
had some wise friend to consult in his perplexities. 
What to do in a business trouble when we are certain 
that there is an exit if we could only find it — a sure 
way to tame an unruly horse if we had the secret — to 
do or not to do whate'er the question — truly all this 
causes great trouble in fife. But, it is within the 
power of man to be his own friend, yes, and compan- 
ion, to a degree of which none have ever dreamed, 
and which borders on the weird, or that which forbodes 
or suggests mysteries to come. For it may come to 
pass that he who has trained himself to it, may com- 
mune with his spirit as with a companion. 

This is, of course, done by just setting the problem, 
or question, or dilemma, before ourselves as clearly as 
we can, so as to know our own minds as well as pos- 
sible. This done, sleep on it, with the resolute will to 
have it recur on the morrow in a clear and solved form. 
And should this occur, do not proceed to pull it to 
pieces again, by way of improvement, but rather sub- 
mit it to another night's rest. I would here say that 
many lawyers and judges are perfectly familiar with 
this process, and use it habitually, without being aware 
of its connection with hypnotism or will. But they 



FASCINATION 87 

could aid it, if they would add this peculiar impulse to 
the action. 

What I will now discuss approaches the miraculous, 
or seems to do so because it has been attempted or 
treated in manifold ways by sorcerers and witches. 
The Voodoos, or black wizards in America, profess to 
be able to awaken love in one person for another by 
means of incantations, but admit that it is the most 
difficult of their feats. Nor do I think that there is 
any infallible recipe for it, but that there are means of 
honestly aiding such affection can hardly be denied. 
In the first place, he who would be loved must love — 
for that is no honest love which is not sincere. And 
having thus inspired himself, and made himself as 
familiar as possible, by quietly observing as dispas- 
sionately as may be all the mental characteristics of 
the one loved, let him with an earnest desire to know 
how to secure a return, go to sleep, and see whether 
the next day will bring a suggestion. And as the old 
proverb declares that luck comes to many when least 
hoped for, so will it often happen that forethought is 
thus fore-bought or secured. 

It is known that gifts pass between friends or lovers, 
to cause the receiver to think of the giver, thus they 
are in a sense amulets. If we believe, as Heine prettily 
suggests, that something of the life or the being of the 
owner or wearer has passed into the talisman, we are 
not far off from the suggestion that our feelings are al- 
lied. All over Italy, or over the world, pebbles of 
precious stone, flint or amber, rough topaz or agate, 
are esteemed as lucky; all things of the kind lead to 
suggestiveness, and may be employed in suggestion. 

What was originally known as Fascination 9 of which 



88 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

the German, Fromann, wrote a very large volume 
which I possess, is simply Hypnotism without the 
putting to sleep. It is direct Suggestion. Where 
there is a natural sympathy of like to like, soul answer- 
ing soul, such suggestion is easily established. Among 
people of a common, average, worldly type who are 
habitually sarcastic, jeering, chaffing, and trifling, or 
those whose idea of genial or agreeable companion- 
ship is to "get a rise" out of all who will give and take 
irritations equally, there can be no sympathy of gentle 
or refined emotions. Experiments, whose whole nature 
presupposes earnest thought, cannot be tried with any 
success by those who five habitually in an atmosphere 
of small talk and "rubbish" associations. Fascina- 
tion should be mutual; to attempt to exert it on any- 
one who is not naturally in sympathy is a crime, and 
I believe that all such cases lead to suffering and 
remorse. 

But where we perceive that there is an undoubted 
mutual liking and good reason for it, fascination, when 
perfectly understood and sympathetically used, facili- 
tates and increases love and friendship, and may be 
most worthily and advantageously employed. Unto 
anyone who could, for example, merely skim over, all 
that I have written, catching an idea here and there, 
and then expect to master all, I can clearly say that I 
can give him or her no definite idea of fascination. For 
Fascination really is effectively what the old philoso- 
phers, who had given immense study and research to 
the subject in ages when susceptibility to suggestive- 
ness went far beyond anything now known, all knew 
and declared; that is to say, it existed, but that it re- 
quired a peculiar mind, and very certainly one which is 



FASCINATION 89 

not frivolous, to understand its nature, and much more 
to master it. 

He who has by foresight, or previous consideration 
of a subject or desire, allied to a vigorous resolution 
(which is a kind of projection of the mind by will — 
and then submitting it to sleep), learned how to bring 
about a wished-for state of mind, has, in a curious 
manner, made as it were of his hidden self a conquest 
yet a friend. He has brought to life within himself a 
Spirit, gifted with greater powers than those possessed 
by Conscious Intellect. By his astonishing and un- 
suspected latent power, Man can imagine and then 
create, even a spirit within the soul. We make at 
first the sketch, then model it in clay, then cast it in 
gypsum, and finally sculpture it in marble. 

I read lately, in a French novel, a description of a 
young lady, by herself, in which she assumed to have 
within her two souls, one good, of which she evidently 
thought very little, and another brilliantly diabolical, 
capricious, vividly dramatic, and interesting esprit — 
to which she gave a great deal of attention. He who 
will begin by merely imagining that he has within him 
a spirit of beauty and fight, which is to subdue and ex- 
tinguish the other or all that is in him of what is low, 
commonplace, and mean, may bring this idea to exert a 
marvellous influence. He can increase the conception, 
and give it reality, by treating it with forethought and 
will, by suggestion, until it gives marvellous result. 
This better self may be regarded as a guardian angel, in 
any case it is a power by means of which we can learn 
mysteries. It is also our Conscience, born of the per- 
ception of Ideals. 

The Ideal or Spirit thus evolved should be morally 



90 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

pure, else the experimenter will find, as did the magi- 
cians of old, that all who dealt with any but good 
spirits, fell into the hands of devils, just as Allan 
Kardec says is the case with Spiritualists. But to 
speak as clearly as I can, he who succeeds in winning 
or creating a higher Self within himself, and fascinat- 
ing it by sympathy, will find that he has, within moral 
limits, a strange power of fascinating those who are in 
sympathy with him. 

Whereupon many will say "of course." Like and 
like together strike. Birds of a feather flock together. 
Similis similibus. But it often happens in this life, 
though they meet they do not pair off. Very often 
indeed they meet, but to part. There must be, even 
where the affinity exists, consideration and forethought 
to test the affinity. It requires long practice even for 
keen eyes to recognize the amethyst or topaz, or many 
other gems, in their natural state as sea-worn pebbles. 
Now, it is not a matter of fancy, of romance, or im- 
agination, that there are men and women who really 
have, deeply hidden in their souls, or more objectively 
manifested, peculiar or beautiful characteristics, or a 
spirit. I would not speak here merely of naivete or 
tenderness — a natural affinity for poetry, art, or 
beauty, but the peculiar tone and manner of it, which is 
sympathetic to ours. For two people may love music, 
yet be widely removed from all agreement if one be a 
Wagnerian, and the other of an older school. Suffice 
it to say that such similarities of mind or mood, of 
intellect or emotion do exist, and when they are real, 
and not imaginary, or merely the result of passional at- 
traction, they suggest and may well attract the use of 
Fascination. 



FASCINATION 91 

Those who actually develop within themselves such 
a spirit, regarding it as one, that is a self beyond self, 
attain to a power which few understand, which is 
practical, positive, and real, and not at all a super- 
stitious fancy. It may begin in imagining or fancy, 
but as the veriest dream is material and may be re- 
peated till we see it visibly and can then copy it, so 
can we create in ourselves a being, a segregation of our 
noblest thoughts, a superb abstraction of soul which 
looks from its sunny mountain height down on the 
dark and noisome valley which forms our worldly 
common intellect or mind, or the only one known to 
by far the majority of mankind, albeit they may have 
therein glimpses of light and truth. But it is to him 
who makes for himself, by earnest Will and Thought, 
a separate and better Life or Self that a better life is 
given. 

Those who possess genius or- peculiarly cultivated 
minds of a highly moral caste, gifted with pure integ- 
rity, and above vulgarity and worldly commonplace 
habits, should never form a tie in friendship or love 
without much forethought. And then if the active 
agent has disciplined his mind by self-hypnotism until 
he can control or manage his Will with ease, he will 
know without further instruction how to fascinate and 
that properly and legitimately. 

Those who now acquire this power are few and far 
between, and when they really possess it they make no 
boast nor parade, but rather keep it carefully to them- 
selves, perfectly content with what it yields for re- 
ward. And here I may declare something in which I 
firmly believe, yet which very few I fear will under- 
stand as I mean it. If this fascination and other 



92 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

faculties like it may be called Magical (albeit all is 
within the limits of science and matter), then there 
are assuredly in this world magicians whom we meet 
without dreaming that they are such. Here and there, 
however rare, there is mortal who has studied deeply 
— but 

"Softened all and tempered into beauty; 
And blended with lone thoughts and wanderings, 
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind 
To love the universe." 

Such beings do not come before the world, but hide 
their lights, knowing well that their magic would de- 
feat itself, and perish if it were made common. Any 
person of the average worldly cast who could work any 
miracles, however small, would in the end bitterly re- 
gret it if he allowed it to be known. Thus I have read 
ingenious stories, as for instance one by Hood, showing 
what terrible troubles a man fell into by being able to 
make himself invisible. Also another setting forth the 
miseries of a successful alchemist. The Algonkin In- 
dians have a legend of a man who came to grief and 
death through his power of making all girls love him. 
But the magic of which I speak is of a far more subtle 
and deeply refined nature, and those who possess it are 
alone in life, save when by some rare chance they meet 
their kind. Those who are deeply and mysteriously in- 
terested in any pursuit for which the great multitude of 
all-alike people have no sympathy, who have peculiar 
studies and subjects of thought, partake a little of the 
nature of the magus. Magic, as popularly understood, 
has no existence, it is a literal myth — for it means 
nothing but what amazes or amuses for a short time. 



FASCINATION 93 

No miracle would be one if it became common. Nature 
is infinite, therefore its laws cannot be violated — ergo, 
there is no magic if we mean by that an inexplicable 
contravention of law. 

But that there are minds who have simply advanced 
in knowledge beyond the multitude in certain things 
which cannot at once be made common property is 
true, for there is a great deal of marvelous truth not as 
yet dreamed of even by Herbert Spencers or Edi- 
sons, by Rontgens or other scientists. And yet 
herein is hidden the greatest secret of future human 
happenings. 

"What I was is passed by, 

What I am away doth fly; 

What I shall be none do see, 

Yet in that my glories be." 

Now to illustrate this more clearly. Some of these 
persons who are more or less secretly addicted to magic 
(I say secretly, because they cannot make it known if 
they would), take the direction of feeling or living with 
inexpressible enjoyment in the beauties of nature. 
That they . attain to something almost or quite equal 
to life in Fairyland, is conclusively proved by the fact 
that only very rarely, here and there in their best 
passages, do the greatest poets more than imperfectly 
and briefly convey some broken idea or reflection of 
the feelings which are excited by thousands of subjects 
in nature in many. The Mariana of Tennyson sur- 
passes anything known to me in any language as con- 
veying the reality of feeling alone in a silent old house, 
where everything in a dim, uncanny manner, recalled 
the past — yet suggested a kind of mysterious presence 
— as in the passage: 



94 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

"All day within the dreary house 

The doors upon their hinges creaked, 
The blue fly sang in the pane, the mouse 

Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked, 
Or from the crevice peered about; 

Old faces glimmered thro' the doors, 

Old footsteps trod the upper floors, 
Old voices called her from without." 

Yet even this unsurpassed poem does no more than 
partially revive and recall the reality to me of similar 
memories of long, long ago, when an invalid child I 
was often left in a house entirely alone, from which 
even the servants had absented themselves. Then I 
can remember how after reading the Arabian Nights 
or some such unearthly romance, as was the mode in 
the Thirties, the very sunshine stealing craftily and 
silently like a living thing, in a bar through the shutter, 
twinkling with dust, as with infinitely small stars, 
living and dying like sparks, the buzzing of the flies 
who were little blue imps, with now and then a larger 
Beelzebub — a strange imagined voice ever about, 
which seemed to say something without words — and 
the very furniture, wherein the chairs were as goblins 
and the broom a tall young woman, and the looking- 
glass a kind of other self-life — all of this as I recall it 
appears to me as a picture of the absence of human 
beings as described by Tennyson, plus a strange per- 
sonality in every object — which the poet does not at- 
tempt to convey. This is, however, a very small or in- 
ferior illustration; there are far more remarkable and 
deeply spiritual or sesthetically-suggestive subjects than 
this, and that in abundance, which Art has indeed so 
reproduced as to amaze the many who have only had 
snatches of such observation themselves. 



FASCINATION 95 

But the magicians, Shelley, or Keats, or Words- 
worth, only convey partial echoes of certain subjects, 
or of their specialties. It is indeed beautiful to feel 
what Art can do, but the original is worth far more. 
And if the reader would be such a magician, let him 
give his heart and will to taking an interest in all that 
is beautiful, good and true — or honest. For that it 
really can be done in all fullness is true beyond a dream 
of doubt. By the ordinary methods of learning one 
may indeed acquire an exact, mechanically drawn 
picture, which we modify with what beauty chance 
bestows. But he who will learn by the process which 
I have endeavored to describe, or by studying with 
the will, cannot fail to experience a strange enchant- 
ment in so doing, as I have read in an Italian tale of a 
youth who was sadly weary of his lessons, but who, 
being taken daily by certain kind fairies into their 
school on a hill, found all difficulties disappear and 
the pursuit of knowledge as joyful as that of pleasure. 

I have heard hypnotism, with regard to fascination, 
spoken of with great apprehension. "It is dreadful," 
said one to me, "to think of anybody's being able to 
exercise such an influence on anyone." And yet, 
widely known as it is, instances of its abuse are very 
rare. Thus, when Cremation was first discussed, it 
was warmly opposed, because somebody might be 
poisoned, and then, the body being burned, there 
could be no autopsy! Nature has decreed some draw- 
back to the best thing; nothing is perfect. But to 
balance the immense benefits latent in suggestion 
against the problematic abuses is like condemning the 
ship because a bucket of tar has been spilt on the deck. 

Sincere kindness and respect, which are allied unto 



96 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

identity, are the best or surest key to love, and they in 
turn are allied to fascination. Here I might observe 
that the action of the eye, which is a silent speech of 
emotion, has always been regarded as powerful in 
fascination, but those who are not by nature gifted with 
it cannot use it to much good purpose. That emo- 
tional, susceptible subjects ready to receive suggestion 
can be put to sleep or made to imagine anything ter- 
rible regarding anybody's glance is very true, just as 
an ignorant Italian will believe of any man that he has 
the malocchio if he be told so, whence came the idea 
that Pope Gregory XVI had the evil eye. But where 
there is sincere kindly feeling it makes itself felt in a 
sympathetic nature by what is popularly called magic, 
only because it is not understood. The enchantment 
lies in this, that unconscious cerebration, or the power 
(or powers), who are always acting in us, effect many 
curious and very subtle mental phenomena, all of 
which they do not confide to the commonsense waking 
judgment or Reason, simply because the latter is al- 
most entirely occupied with common worldly subjects. 
It is as if someone whose whole attention and interest 
had been at all times given to some plain hard drudg- 
ery, should be called on to review or write a book of 
exquisitely subtle poetry. It is, indeed, almost sadly 
touching to reflect how this innocent and beautiful fac- 
ulty of recognizing what is good, is really acting per- 
haps in evil and merely worldly minds all in vain, and 
all unknown to them. The more the conscious wak- 
ing-judgment has been trained to recognize goodness, 
the more will the hidden water-fairies rise above the 
surface, as ft were, to the sunshine. So it comes that 
true kindly feeling is recognized by sympathy, and 



FASCINATION 97 

those who would be loved, cannot do better than make 
themselves truly and perfectly kind by forethought 
and will, and with this the process of self-hypnotism 
will be a great aid. For it is not more by winning 
others to us,, than in willing ourselves to them that 
true Love consists. 

Love or trusting sympathy from any human being, 
however humble, is the most charming thing in life, 
and it ought to be the main object of existence. Yet 
there are thousands all round us, yes, many among our 
friends or acquaintances, who live and die without ever 
having known it, because in their egotism and folly 
they conceive of close relations as founded on personal 
power, interest, or the weakness of others. The only 
fascination which such people can ever exercise is that 
of the low and devilish kind, the influence of the cat on 
the mouse, the eye of the snake on the bird, which in 
the end degrades them into deeper evil. That there 
are such people, and that they really make captive and 
oppress weaker minds, by suggestion, is true; the 
marvel being that so few find it out. 

But in proportion as this kind of fascination is vile 
and mean, that which may be called altruistic or sym- 
pathetic attraction, or Enchantment, is noble and pure, 
because it acquires strength in proportuion to the 
purity and beauty of the soul or will which inspires it. 
It is as real and has as much power, and can be ex- 
ercised by any honest person whatever with wonderful 
effect, even to the performing what are popularly 
called "miracles," which only means wonderful works 
beyond our power of explanation. But this kind of 
fascination is little understood as yet, simply because it 
is based on purity, morality, and light, and hitherto 



98 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

the seekers for occult mysteries have been chiefly oc- 
cupied with the gloomy and mock-diabolical rubbish of 
old tradition, instead of scientific investigation of our 
minds and brains. 

There is also in truth a Fascination by means of the 
Voice, which has in it a much deeper and stronger 
power or action than that of merely sweet sound as of 
an instrument. The Jesuit, Gaspar Schott, in his 
Magio Medica treats of Fascination as twofold. De 
Fascinatione per Visum et Vocem. I have found among 
Italian witches as with Red Indian wizards, every 
magical operation depended on an incantation, and 
every incantation on the feeling, intonation, or manner 
in which it is sung. Thus near Rome any peasant 
overhearing a scongiurazione would recognize it from 
the sound alone. 

Anyone, male or female, can have a deep, rich voice 
by simply subduing and training it, and very rarely 
raising it to a high pitch. Nota bene that the less this 
is affected the more effective it will be. There are 
many, especially women, who speak, as it were, all the 
time in italics, when they do not set their speech in 
small caps or displayed large capitals. The result of 
this, as regards sound, is the so-called nasal voice, 
which is very much like caterwauling, and I need not 
say that there is no fascination in it — on the con- 
trary its tendency is to destroy any other kind of at- 
traction. It is generally far more due to an ill-trained, 
unregulated, excitable, nervous temperament than to 
any other cause. 

The training the voice to a subdued state "like music 
in its softest key," or to rich, deep tones, though it be 
done artificially, has an extraordinary effect on the 



FASCINATION 99 

character and on others. It is associated with a well- 
trained mind and one gifted with self-control. One of 
the richest voices to which I ever listened was that of 
the poet Tennyson. I can remember another man of 
marvelous mind, vast learning, and sesthetic-poetic 
power who also had one of those voices which exer- 
cised great influence on all who heard it. 

There is an amusing parallel as regards nasal-scream- 
ing voices in the fact that a donkey cannot bray unless 
he at the same time lifts his tail — but if the tail be 
tied down, the beast must be silent. So the man or 
woman, whose voice like that of the erl-king's is 
"ghostly shrill as the wind in the porch of a ruined 
church," always raise their tones with their temper, 
but if we keep the former down by training, the latter 
cannot rise. 

I once asked a very talented lady teacher of Elocu- 
tion in Philadelphia if she regarded shrill voices as in- 
curable. She replied that they invariably yielded to 
instruction and training. Children under no domestic 
restraint who were allowed to scream out and dispute 
on all occasions and were never corrected in intonation, 
generally had vulgar voices. 

A good voice acts very evidently on the latent powers 
of the mind, and impresses the aesthetic sense, even 
when it is unheeded by the conscious judgment. Many 
a clergyman makes a deep impression by his voice 
alone. And why? Certainly not by appealing to the 
reason. Therefore it is well to be able to fascinate 
with the voice. Now, nota bene — as almost every 
human being can speak m a soft or well-toned voice, 
"at least, subdued unto a temperate tone" just as 
long as he or she chooses to do it, it follows that with 



100 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

foresight, aided by suggestion, or continued will, we 
can all acquire this enviable accomplishment. 

To end this chapter with a curious bit of appropriate 
folk-lore, I would record that while Saxo Grammaticus, 
Olaus Magnus, and a host of other Norsmen have left 
legends to prove that there were sorcerers who by 
magic of the soft and wondrous voice could charm and 
capture men of the sword, so the Jesuit Athanasius 
Kircher, declares that on the seventeenth day of 
May, 1638, he, going from Messina in a boat, witnessed 
with his own eyes the capture not of swordsmen but of 
sundry xiphiae, or sword-fish, by means of a melodi- 
ously chanted charm, the words whereof he noted 
down as follows: 

" Mammassudi di pajanu, 
Palletu di pajanu, 
Majassu stigneta. 
Pallettu di pajanu, 
Pale la stagneta. 
Mancata stigneta. 
Pro nastu varitu pressu du 
Visu, e da terra!" 

Of which words Kircher declares that they are prob- 
ably of mingled corrupt Greek and ancient Sicilian, but, 
that whatever they are, they certainly are admirable 
for the catching of fish. 



CHAPTER X 

THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 

While the previous pages of this work were in the 
press, I received and read a very interesting and able 
book, entitled, "Telepathy and the SubHminal Self, or 
an account of recent investigations regarding Hyp- 
notism, Automatism, Dreams, Phantoms, and related 
phenomena," by R. Osgood Mason, A. M., Fellow of 
the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Mason, on 
the whole, may be said to follow Hartmann, since he 
places Thaumaturgy, or working what have been con- 
sidered as wonders, miracles, and the deeds of spirit- 
ualists, on the evolutionary or material basis. He is 
also far less superstitious or prone to seek the miracu- 
lous and mysterious for its own sake, than his predeces- 
sors in occulta, and limits his beliefs to proofs sustained 
by good authority. He recognizes a second, or what 
he calls a subliminal Self, the Spirit of our Soul, acting 
independently of Waking Conscious Judgment, a 
mysterious alter ego, which has marvellous power. 

This second or inner self I have also through this 
work of mine recognized as a reality, though it is, like 
the self-conscious soul, rather an aggregate than a dis- 
tinct unity. Thus we may for convenience' sake speak 
of the Memory, when there are in fact millions of 
memories, since every image stored away in the brain 
is one, and the faculty of revising them for the use of 
the waking soul, is certainly apart from the action of 

101 



102 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

bringing them into play in dreams. In fact if we re- 
gard the action of all known faculties, we might assume 
with the Egyptians that man had not merely eight 
distinct souls, but eighty, or even a countless number. 
And as the ancients, knowing very little about mental 
action, classed it all as one soul, so we may call that 
which is partially investigated and mysterious, as 
second or inner "soul," spirit, or subhminal self — 
that is to say provisionally, till more familiar with its 
nature and relations. 

Dr. Mason, to his credit be it said, has not accepted 
for Gospel, as certain French writers have done, the 
tricks of self-confessed humbugs. He has only given 
us the cream of the most strictly attested cases, as re- 
lated by French scientists and people of unquestioned 
veracity. And yet admitting that in every instance 
the witness sincerely believed that he or she spoke the 
truth, the aggregate is so far from confirming the tales 
told, that consideration and comparison would induce 
very grave doubt. Thus, who could have been more 
sincere, purely honest or pious than Justinus Kerner, 
whom I knew personally, Swedenborg, Eschenmayer 
and all of their school? Yet how utterly irreconcilable 
are all their revelations! 

Therefore, while I have cited illustration and ex- 
ample as affording unproved or hearsay evidence, I, in 
fact, decidedly reject not only all tradition, as proof on 
occult subjects, but all assertion from any quarter, 
however trustworthy, asking the reader to believe in 
nothing which he cannot execute and make sure unto 
himself. Tradition and testimony are very useful to 
supply ideas or theories, but to actually believe in any- 
thing beyond his experience a man should take suf- 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 103 

ficient interest in it to prove it by personal experiment. 
And, therefore, as I have already declared, I not only 
ask, but hope that no reader will put faith in anything 
which I have alleged or declared, until he has fully 
and fairly proved it to be true in his own person. 

The history of true culture, truth, or progress has 
been that of doubt or disbelief in all which cannot be 
scientifically proved or made manifest to sensation and 
reflection, and even in this the most scrupulous care 
must be exercised, since our senses often deceive us. 
Therefore, in dealing with subjects which have un- 
deniably been made the means of deceit and delusion 
thousands of times to one authentic instance, it is not 
well to accept testimony, or any kind of evidence, or 
proof, save that which we can establish for ourselves. 
The day is not yet, but it is coming, when self-evidence 
will be claimed, and granted, as to all human knowl- 
edge, and the sooner it comes the better will it be for 
the world. 

But I would be clearly understood as declaring that it 
is only as regards making up our minds to absolute 
faith in what involves what may be called our mental 
welfare, which includes the most serious conduct of 
life, that I would limit belief to scientific proof. As an 
example, I will cite the very interesting case of the 
hypnotic treatment of a patient by Dr. Voisin, and 
as given by Mason. 

"In the summer of 1884, there was at the Salpetriere 

a young woman of a deplorable type, Jeanne S , 

who was a criminal lunatic, filthy, violent, and with a 
life history of impurity and crime. M. Auguste Voisin, 
one of the physicians of the staff, undertook to hyp- 
notize her, May 31. At that time she was so violent 



104 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

that she could only be kept quiet by a straight-jacket 
and the constant cold douche to her head. She would 
not look at M. Voisin, but raved and spat at him. He 
persisted, kept his face near and opposite to hers, and 
his eyes following hers constantly. In ten minutes she 
was in a sound sleep, and soon passed into a somnambul- 
istic condition. The process was repeated many days, 
and she gradually became sane while in the hypnotic 
condition, but still raved when she woke. 

"Gradually then she began to accept hypnotic sug- 
gestion, and would obey trivial orders given her while 
asleep, such as to sweep her room, then suggestions re- 
garding her general behavior; then, in her hypnotic 
condition, she began to express regret for her past life, 
and form resolutions of amendment to which she finally 
adhered when she awoke. Two years later she was a 
nurse in one of the Paris hospitals, and her conduct was 
irreproachable. M. Voisin has followed up this case 
by others equally striking." 

This is not only an unusually well authenticated in- 
stance, but one which seems to carry conviction from 
the manner of narration. Yet it would be absurd to 
declare that the subject neither deceived herself nor 
others, or that the doctor made no mistakes either in 
fact or involuntarily. The whole is, however, ex- 
tremely valuable from its probability, and still more 
from its suggesting experiment in a much more useful 
direction than that followed in the majority of cases 
recorded in most books, which, especially in France, 
seem chiefly to have been conducted from a melo- 
dramatic or merely medical point of view. Very few 
indeed seem to have ever dreamed that a hypnotized 
subject was anything but a being to be cured of some 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 105 

disorder, operated on without pain, or made to undergo 
and perform various tricks, often extremely cruel, silly, 
and wicked — the main object of all being to advertise 
the skill of the operator. In fact, if it were to be ac- 
cepted that the main object of hypnotism is to repeat 
such experiments as are described in most of the 
French works on the subject, humanity and decency 
would join in prohibiting the practice of the art alto- 
gether. These books point out and make clear in the 
minutest manner, how every kind of crime can be com- 
mitted, and the mind brought to regard all that is evil 
as a matter of course. The making an innocent person 
attempt to commit a murder or steal is among the most 
usual experiments; while, on the contrary, any case, 

like that of the reform of Jeanne S is either very 

rare, or else is treated simply as a proof of the skill of 
some medico. The fact that if the successes which are 
recorded are true, there exists a stupendous power by 
means of which the average morality and happiness of 
mankind can be incredibly advanced and sustained, and 
Education, Art in every branch, and, in a word, all 
Culture be marvelously developed on a far more secure 
basis than in the old systems, does not seem to have 
occurred to any of those who possessed, as it were, gold, 
without having the least idea of its value or even its 
qualities. 

Happiness in the main is a pleasant, contented condi- 
tion of the mind, that is to say, "a state of mind." To 
be perfect, as appears from an enlarged study of all 
things or phenomena in their relations (since every 
part must harmonize with the whole), this happiness 
implies duty and altruism, every whit as much as self- 
enjoyment. This agrees with and results from scien- 



106 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

tific experience. Under the old a priori psychologic 
system, selfishness (which meant that every soul was 
to be chiefly or solely concerned in saving itself, guided 
by hope of reward and fear of punishment), it was 
naturally the basis of morality. 

Now, accepting the definition of Happiness as a state 
of mind under certain conditions, it follows that it can 
be realized to a great degree, and in all cases to some 
degree, firstly by forethought or carefully defining what 
it is or what we desire, and secondly by making a fixed 
idea by simple, well-nigh mechanical means, without 
any resource to les grands moyens. According to the 
old and now rapidly vanishing philosophy, this was to 
be effected by sublime morality, prayer, or adjuration 
of supernatural beings and noble heroism, but what is 
here proposed is much humbler, albeit more practical. 
Reading immortal poetry or prose is indeed a splendid 
power, but to learn the letters of the alphabet, and to 
spell, is very simple and unpoetic, yet far more prac- 
tical. What I have described has been the mere dull 
rudiments. It is most remarkable that the world has 
always known that the art of Raffaelle, Michael 
Angelo, and Albert Durer was based, like that of 
the greatest musicians, on extensive rudimentary study, 
and yet has never dreamed that what far surpasses all 
art in every way, and even includes the desire for it, 
may all proceed from, or be developed by, a process 
which is even easier than those required for the lesser 
branches. 

He who can control his own mind by an iron will, 
and say to the Thoughts which he would banish, "Be 
ye my slaves and begone into outer darkness," or to 
Peace "Dwell with me forever, come what may," and 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 107 

be obeyed, that man is a mighty magician who has at- 
tained what is worth more than all that Earth pos- 
sesses. Absolute self-control under the conditions be- 
fore denned — since our happiness to be true must 
agree with that of others — is absolutely essential to 
happiness. There can be no greater hero than the man 
who can conquer himself and think exactly as he 
pleases. That which annoys, tempts, stirs us to being 
irritable, wicked, or mean, is an aggregate of evil 
thoughts or images received by chance or otherwise 
into the memory, developed there into vile unions, and 
new forms like coalescing animalcule, and so powerful 
and vivid or objective do they become that men in all 
ages have given them a real existence as evil spirits. 

Every sane man living, can if he really desires it, ob- 
tain complete absolute command of himself, exorcise 
these vile demons and bring in peace instead, by de- 
veloping with determination the simple process which I 
have described. I have found in my own experience a 
fierce pleasure in considering obnoxious and pernicious 
Thoughts as imps or demons to be conquered, in which 
case Pride and even Arrogance become virtues, even as 
poisons in their place are wholesome medicines. Thus, 
he who is haunted with the fixed idea, even well nigh to 
monomania, that he will never give way to ill temper, 
that nothing shall disturb his equanimity, need not fear 
evil results any more than the being haunted by angels. 
Now we can all have fixed or haunting ideas, on any 
subject which we please to entertain — but the idea to 
create good and beneficent haunting has not, that I 
am aware, been suggested by philosophers. 

That mental influence can be exerted hypnotically 
most directly and certainly by one person upon an- 



108 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

other is undeniable, but this requires, firstly, a sus- 
ceptible subject, or only one person in three or four, 
and to a degree a specially gifted operator, and very 
often "heaven-sent moments." 

"However greatly mortals may require it, 
All cannot go to Corinth who desire it." 

But forethought, self-suggestion, and the bringing the 
mind to dwell continuously on a subject are absolutely 
within the reach of all who have any strength of mind 
whatever, without any aid. Those of feebler ability 
yield, however, all the more readily (as in the case of 
children) to the influence of others or of hypnotism by 
a master. Therefore, either subjectively or with as- 
sistance, most human beings can be morally benefited 
to a limitless degree, "morally" including intellect- 
ually. 

We often hear it said of a person that he or she would 
do well or succeed if that individual had "applica- 
tion." Now, as Application, or "sticking to it," or 
perseverance in earnest faith, is the main condition for 
success in all that I have discussed, I trust that it will 
be borne in mind that the process indicated provides 
from the first lesson or experiment for this chief req- 
uisite. For the forethinking and hypnotizing our minds 
to be in a certain state or condition all the next day, by 
what some writers, such as Hartmann, treat as magical 
process — but which is just so much magical as the use 
of an electrical machine — is simply a beginning in At- 
tention and Perseverance. 

"So, like a snowball rolled in falling snow, 
It gathers size as it doth onward go." 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 109 

When we make a wish or will, or determine that in 
future after awaking we shall be in a given state of 
mind, we also include Perseverance for the given time, 
and as success supposes repetition in all minds, it fol- 
lows that Perseverance will be induced gradually and 
easily. 

And here I may remark that while all writers on 
ethics, duty or morals, cry continually" Be persevering, 
be honest, be enterprising, exert your will!" and so on, 
and waste thousands of books in illustrating the ad- 
vantages of all these fine things, there is not one who 
tells us how to practically execute or do them. To 
follow the hint of a quaint Sunday School picture, they 
show us a swarm of Bees, with hive and honey, but do 
not tell us how to catch one. And yet a man may be 
anything he pleases if he will by easy and simple prac- 
tice as I have shown, make the conception habitual. 
I do not tell you as these good folk do, how to go about 
it nobly, or heroically, or piously; in fact, I prescribe 
a method as humble as making a fire, or a pair of 
shoes, and yet in very truth and honor I have profited 
far more by it than I ever did from all the exhortations 
which I ever have read. 

Now there are many men who are not so bad in 
themselves in reality, but who are so haunted by evil 
thoughts, impulses, and desires, that they, being 
taught by the absurd old heathenish psychology that 
"the soul" is all one spiritual entity, believe themselves 
to be as wicked as Beelzebub could wish, when, in 
fact these sins are nothing but evil weeds which came 
into the mind as neglected seeds, and grew apace from 
sheer carelessness. Regarding them in the light, as 
one may say, of bodily and material nuisances, or a 



110 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

kind of vermin, they can be extirpated by the strong 
hand of Will, much more easily than under the old 
system, whereby they were treated with respect and 
awe as Milton hath done (and most immorally too), 
Dante being no better; and they would both have 
exerted their gigantic intellects to better purpose by 
showing man how to conquer the devil, instead of ex- 
alting and exaggerating his stupendous power and 
showing how, as regards Humanity (for which ex- 
pressly the Universe, including countless millions of 
solar systems, was created), Satan has by far the 
victory, since he secures the majority of souls. For 
saying which thing a holy bishop once got himself into 
no end of trouble. 

I say that he who uses his will can crush and drive 
out vile haunting thoughts, and the more rudely and 
harshly he does it the better. In all the old systems, 
without exception, they are treated with far too 
much respect and reverence, and no great wonder 
either, since they were regarded as a great innate 
portion of the soul. Whether to be cleared out by the 
allopathic exorcism, or the gentler homeopathic prayer, 
the patient never relied on himself. There is a fine 
Italian proverb in the collection of Guilio Varrino, 
Venice 1656, which declares that Buona volonta sup- 
plice a facolta — "strong will ekes out ability" — and 
before the Will (which the Church has ever weakened 
or crushed) no evil instincts can hold. The same 
author tells us that "The greatest man in the world is 
he who can govern his own will," also, "To him who 
wills naught is impossible." To which I would add 
that "Whoever chooses to have a will may do so by 
culture," or by ever so little to begin with. Nay, I 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 111 

have no doubt that in time there will be societies, 
schools, churches, or circles, in which the Will shall be 
taught and applied to all moral and mental culture. 

He who wills it sincerely can govern his Will, and 
he who can govern his Will is a thousand times more 
fortunate than if he could govern the world. For to 
govern the Will is to be without fear, superior and in- 
different to all earthly follies and shams, idols, cants, 
and delusions, it is to be lord of a thousand isles in the 
sea of life, and absolutely greater than any living 
mortal, as men exist. Small need has that man to 
heed what his birth or station in society may be who 
has mastered himself with the iron will; for he who 
has conquered death and the devil need fear no 
shadows. 

He who masters himself by Will has attained to all 
that is best and noblest in Stoicism, Epicureanism, 
Christianity, and Agnosticism; if the latter be under- 
stood not as doubt, but free Inquiry, and could men 
be made to feel what all this means and what power it 
bestows, and how easily it really is to master it, we 
should forthwith see all humanity engaged in the 
work. 

It has been declared by many in the past in regard to 
schooling their minds to moral and practical ends that, 
leading busy lives, they had not time to think of such 
matters. But I earnestly protest that it is these very 
men of all others who most require the discipline which 
I have taught, and it is as easy for them as for any- 
body; as it, indeed, ought to be easier, yes, and far 
more profitable. For the one who leads by fortune a 
quiet life of leisure can often school himself without a 
system, while he who toils amid anxious thoughts and 



112 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

with every mental power severely taxed, will find that 
he can do his work far more easily if he determines that 
he will master it. The amount of mental action which 
lies dormant in us all is illimitable and it can all be 
realized by the hypnotism of Will. 



CHAPTER XI 

PARACELSUS 

That out ordinary consciousness or Waking In- 
tellect, and what is generally recognized as Mind or 
Soul, includes whatever has been taken in by sensation 
and reflection and assimilated to daily wants, or shows 
itself in bad or good memories and thought, is evident. 
Not less clear is it that there is another hidden Self — 
a power which, recognizing much which is evil in the 
Mind, would fain reject, or rule, or subdue it. This 
latent, inner Intelligence calls into action the Will. 
All of this is vague, and, it may be, unscientific. It is 
more rational to believe in many faculties or functions, 
but the classification here suggested may serve as a 
basis. It is effectively that of Grassner, or of all who 
have recognized the power of the Will to work "mir- 
acles," guided by a higher morality. And it is very 
curious that Paracelsus based his whole system on 
nervous cure, at least, on this theory. Thus, in the 
Liber Entium Morborum, de Ente Spirituali, chap, iii, 
he writes: 

"As we have shown that there are two Subjeda, this 
will we assume as our ground. Ye know that there is 
in the Body a Soul. (Geist.) Now reflect, to what 
purpose? Just that it may sustain fife, even as the air 
keeps animals from dying for want of breath. So we 
know what the soul is. This soul in Man is actually 

113 



114 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

clear, intelligible, and sensible to the other soul, and, 
classing them, they are to be regarded as allied, even as 
bodies are. I have a soul — the other hath also one." 

Paracelsus is here very obscure, but he manifestly 
means by "the other," the Body. To resume: 

"The Souls know one another as 'I,' and 'the other.' 
They converse together in their language, not by neces- 
sity according to our thoughts, but what they will. 
And note, too, that there may be anger between them, 
and one may belittle or injure the other; this injury is 
in the Soul, the Soul in the body. Then the body suf- 
fers and is ill — not materially or from a material Ens, 
but from the Soul. For this we need spiritual remedy. 
Ye are two who are dear unto one another; great in 
affinity. The cause is not in the body, nor is it from 
without; it comes from your souls (Geisten), who are 
allied. The same pair may become inimical, or remain 
so. And that ye may understand a cause for this, 
note that the Spirit (Geisf) of the Reasoning Faculty 
(Vernunft) is not born, save from the Will, therefore 
the Will and the Reason are separate. What exists 
and acts according to the Will lives in the Spirit; what 
only according to the Reason lives against the Spirit. 
For the Reason brings*fqrth no spirit, only the Soul 
(Seel) is born of it — from Will (Somes the Spirit, the 
essence of which we describe and let the Soul be." 

In this grandly conceived but most carelessly written 
passage the author, in the beginning thereof, makes 
such confusion in expressing both Soul and Spirit with 
the one word, Geist, that his real meaning could not be 
intelligible to the reader who had not already mastered 
the theory. But, in fact, the whole conception is 
marvellous and closely agreeing with the latest dis- 



PARACELSUS 115 

coveries in Science, while ignoring all the old psy- 
chological system. 

Very significant is what Paracelsus declares in his 
Fragmenta Medicina de Morbis Somnii, that so many 
evils beset us, "caused by the coarseness of our igno- 
rance, because we know not what is born in us." That 
is to say, if we knew our mental power, or what we are 
capable of, we could cure or control all bodily infirmi- 
ties. And how to rule and form this power, and make 
it obey the Geist or Will which Paracelsus believed 
was born of the common conscious Soul — that is the 
question. 

For Paracelsus truly believed that out of this com- 
mon Soul, the result of Sensation and Reflection, and 
all we pick up by Experience and Observation (and 
such as makes all that there is of Life for most people), 
there is born, or results, a perception of Ideas, of right 
and wrong, of mutual interests; a certain subtle, moral 
conscience or higher knowledge. "The Souls may be- 
come inimical;" that is, the Conscience, or Spirit, may 
differ or disagree with the Soul, as a son may be at 
variance with his father. So the flower or fruit may 
oft despise the root. The Will is allied to Conscience 
or a perception of the Ideal. #» When a man finds out 
that he knows more or better than he has hitherto 
done: as, for instance, when a thief learns that it is 
wrong to steal, and feels it deeply, he endeavors to re- 
form, although he feels all the time old desires and 
temptations to rob. Now, if he resolutely subdue 
these, his Will is born. "The spirit of the Reasoning 
faculty is not born, save of the Will. . . . what exists 
and acts according to the Will lives in the spirit." 
The perception of ideals is the bud, Conscience the 



116 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

flower, and the Will the fruit. A pure Will must be 
moral, for it is the result of the perception of Ideals, or 
a Conscience. The world in general regards Will as 
mere blind force, applicable to good or bad indif- 
ferently. But the more truly and fully it is developed, 
or as Orson is raised to Valentine, the more moral and 
optimistic does it become. Will in its perfection is 
Genius, spontaneous originality, that is Voluntary; not 
merely a power to lift a weight, or push a load, or force 
others to yield, but the Thought itself which suggests 
the deed and finds a reason for it. Now the merely un- 
scrupulous use of Opportunity and Advantage, or 
Crime, is popularly regarded as having a strong Will; 
but this, as compared to a Will with a conscience, is as 
the craft of the fox compared to that of the dragon, 
and that of the dragon to Siegfried. 

And here it may be observed as a subtle and strange 
thing, approaching to magic apparently, as understood 
by Hartmann and his school, that the Will sometimes, 
when much developed, actually manifests something 
like an independent personality, or at least seems to do 
so, to an acute observer. And what is more remark- 
able, it can have this freedom of action and invention 
delegated to it, and will act on it. 

Thus, in conversation with Herkomer, the Artist, 
and Dr. W. W. Baldwin, Nov. 2d, 1878, the former 
explained to me that when he would execute a work of 
art, he just determined it with care, or Forethought in 
his mind, and gave it a rest, as by sleep, during which 
time it unconsciously fructified or germinated, even as 
a seed when planted in the ground at last grows up- 
ward into the light and air. Now, that the entire 
work should not be too much finished or quite com- 



PARACELSUS 117 

pleted, and to leave room for after-thoughts or pos- 
sible improvements, he was wont, as he said, to give 
the Will some leeway, or freedom; which is the same 
thing as if, before going to sleep, we Will or determine 
that on the following day our Imagination, or Creative 
Force, or Inventive Genius, shall be unusually active, 
which will come to pass after some small practice and a 
few repetitions, as all may find for themselves. Truly, 
it will be according to conditions, for if there be but 
little in a man, either he will bring but little out, or 
else he must wait until he can increase what he hath. 
And in this the Will seems to act like an independent 
person, ingeniously, yet withal obedient. And the 
same also characterizes images in dreams, which some- 
times appear to be so real that it is no wonder many 
think they are spirits from another world, as is true of 
many haunting thoughts which come unbidden. How- 
ever, this is all mere Thaumaturgy, which has been so 
deadly to Truth in the old a priori psychology, and still 
works mischief, albeit it has its value in suggesting very 
often in Poetry what Science afterwards proves in 
Prose. 

To return to Parcelsus, Heine complains that his 
German is harder to understand than his Latin. How- 
ever, I think that in the following passages he shows 
distinctly a familiarity with hypnotism, or certainly, 
passes by hand and suggestion. Thus, chap, x, de Ente 
Spirituali, in which the Will is described, begins as fol- 
lows: "Now shall ye mark that the Spirits rule their 
subjects. And I have shown intelligibly how the Ens 
Spirituale, or Spiritual Being, rules so mightily the 
body that many disorders may be ascribed to it. 
Therefore unto these ye should not apply ordinary 



118 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

medicine, but heal the spirit — therein lies the dis- 
order." 

Paracelsus clearly states that by the power of 
Foresight — he uses the exact word, Fixrsicht — Man 
may, aided by Sleep, attain to knowledge — past, pres- 
ent, or future — and achieve Telepathy, or communion 
at a distance. In the Fragmenta, Caput de Morbis 
Somnii he writes: 

"Therefore learn, that by Foresight man can know 
future things ; and, from experience, the past and pres- 
ent. Thereby is man so highly gifted in Nature that 
he knows or perceives (sichf), as he goes, his neighbor 
or friend in a distant land. Yet, on waking, he knows 
nothing of all this. For God has given to us all — Art, 
Wisdom, Reason — to know the future, and what 
passes in distant lands; but we know it not, for we 
fools, busied in common things, sleep away, as it were, 
what is in us. Thus, seeing one who is a better artist 
than thou art, do not say that he has more fight or grace 
than thou; for thou hast it also, but hast not tried, 
and so is it with all things. What Adam and Moses 
did was to try, and they succeeded, and it came neither 
from the Devil nor from Spirits, but from the Light of 
Nature, which they developed in themselves. But we 
do not seek for what is in us, therefore we remain noth- 
ing, and are nothing." 

Here the author very obscurely, yet vigorously, de- 
clares that we can do or learn what we will, but it 
must be achieved by foresight, will, and the aid of 
sleep. 

It seems very evident, after careful study of the text, 
that here, as in many other places, our author indicates 
familiarity with the method of developing mental 



PARACELSUS 119 

action in its subtlest and most powerful forms. Firstly, 
by determined Foresight, and, secondly, by the aid 
of sleep, corresponding to the bringing a seed to rest a 
while, and thereby cause it to germinate; the which 
admirable simile he himself uses in a passage which I 
have not cited. 

Paracelsus was the most original thinker and the 
worst writer of a wondrous age, when all wrote badly 
and thought badly. There is in his German writings 
hardly one sentence which is not ungrammatical, con- 
fused or clumsy; nor one without a vigorous idea, 
which shows the mind or character of the man. 

As a curious instance of the poetic originality of 
Paracelsus we may take the following: 

"It is an error to suppose that chiromancy is limited 
to the hand, for there are significant lines (indicating 
character), all over the body. And it is so in vegetable 
life. For in a plant every leaf is a hand. Man hath 
two; a tree many, and every one reveals its anatomy 
— a handanatomy. Now ye shall understand that in 
double form the lines are masculine or feminine. And 
there are as many differences in these lines on leaves as 
in human hands." 

Goethe has the credit that he reformed or advanced 
the Science of Botany, by reducing the plant to the leaf 
as the germ or type; and this is now further reduced to 
the cell, but the step was a great one. Did not Para- 
celsus, however, give the idea? 

"The theory of signatures," says Vaughan, in his 
Hours with the Mystics, "proceeded on the supposition 
that every creature bears in some part of its structure 
. . . the indication of the character or virtue inher- 
ent in it — the representation, in fact, of its ideal or 



120 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

soul. . . . The student of sympathies thus essayed to 
read the character of plants by signs in their organiza- 
tion, as the professor of palmistry announced that of 
men by lines in the hand." Thus, to a degree which is 
very little understood, Paracelsus took a great step 
towards modern science. He disclaimed Magic and 
Sorcery, with ceremonies, and endeavored to base all 
cure on human will. The name of Paracelsus is now 
synonymous with Rosier ucianism, Alchemy, Elemen- 
tary Spirits and Theurgy, when, in fact, he was in his 
time a bold reformer, who cast aside an immense 
amount of old superstition, and advanced into what 
his age regarded as terribly free thought. He was 
compared to Luther, and the doing so greatly pleased 
him ; he dwells on it at length in one of his works. 

What Paracelsus really believed in at heart was 
nothing more or less than an unfathomable Nature, a 
Natura naturans of infinite resource, connected with 
which, as a microcosm, is man, who has also within 
him infinite powers, which he can learn to master by 
cultivating the will, which must be begun at least by 
the aid of sleep, or letting the resolve ripen, as it were, 
in the mind, apart from Consciousness. 

I had written every fine of my work on the same sub- 
ject and principles long before I was aware that I had 
unconsciously followed exactly in the footprints of the 
great Master; for though I had made many other dis- 
coveries in his books, I knew nothing of this. 



CHAPTER XII 

LAST WORDS 

"By carrying calves Milo, 'tis said, grew strong, 
Until with ease he bore a bull along." 

It is, I believe, unquestionable that, if he ever lived, 
a man who had attained to absolute control over his 
own mind, must have been the most enviable of mor- 
tals. Montaigne illustrates such an ideal being by a 
quotation from Virgil: 

"Velut rupes vastum quae prodit in sequor 
Obvia ventorum furiis, exposta que ponto, 
Vim cunctum atque minas perfert caelique marisque 
Ipsa immota manens." 

"He as a rock among vast billows stood, 
Scorning loud winds and the wild raging flood, 
And firm remaining, all the force defies, 
From the grim threatening seas and thundering skies." 

And Montaigne also doubted whether such self- 
control was possible. He remarks of it: 

"Let us never attempt these Examples; we shall 
never come up to them. This is too much and too 
rude for our common souls to undergo. Cato indeed 
gave up the noblest Life that ever was upon this ac- 
count, but it is for us meaner spirited men to fly from 
the storm as far as we can." 

Is it? I may have thought so once, but I begin to 
believe that in this darkness a new strange light is be- 

121 



122 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

ginning to show itself. The victory may be won far 
more easily than the rather indolent and timid Essayist 
ever imagined. Montaigne, and many more, be- 
lieved that absolute self-control is only to be obtained 
by iron effort, heroic and terrible exertion — a con- 
ception based on bygone History, which is all a record 
of battles of man against man, or man with the Devil. 
Now the world is beginning slowly to make an ideal of 
peace, and disbelieve in the Devil. Science is at- 
tempting to teach us that from any beginning, however 
small, great results are sure to be obtained if resolutely 
followed up and fully developed. 

It requires thought to realize what a man gifted to 
some degree with culture and common sense must en- 
joy who can review the past without pain, and regard 
the present with perfect assurance that come what may 
he need have no fear or fluttering of the heart. Spenser 
has asked in "The Fate of the Butterfly": 

"What more felicity can fall to creature 
Than to enjoy delight with liberty?" 

To which one may truly reply, that all delight is fit- 
ful and uncertain unless bound or blended with the 
power to be indifferent to involuntary annoying emo- 
tions, and that self-command is in itself the highest 
mental pleasure, or one which surpasses all of any kind. 
He who does not overestimate the value of money or 
anything earthly is really richer than the millionaire. 
There is a foolish story told by Combe in his Physiology 
of a man who had the supernatural gift of never feeling 
any pain, be it from cold, hunger, heat, or accident. 
The rain beat upon him in vain, the keenest north wind 
did not chill him — he was fearless and free. But 



LAST WORDS 123 

this immunity was coupled with an inability to feel 
pleasure — his wine or ale was no more to his palate 
than water, and he could not feel the kiss of his child; 
and so we are told that he was soon desirous to become 
a creature subject to all physical sensations as before. 
But it is, as I said, a foolish tale, because it reduces all 
that is worth living for to being warm or enjoying taste. 
His mind was not affected, but that goes for nothing 
in such sheer sensuality. However, a man without 
losing his tastes or appetites may train his Will to so 
master Emotion as to enjoy delight with liberty, and 
also exclude what constitutes the majority of all suf- 
fering with man. 

It is a truth that there is very often an extremely 
easy, simple, and prosaic way to attain many an end, 
which has always been supposed to require stupendous 
efforts. In an Italian fairy tale a prince besieges a 
castle with an army — trumpets blowing, banners 
waving, and all the pomp and circumstances of war — 
to obtain a beautiful heroine who is meanwhile carried 
away by a rival who knew of a subterranean passage. 
Hitherto, as I have already said, men have sought for 
self-control only by means of heroic exertion, or by 
besieging the castle from without; the simple system 
of Forethought and Self-Suggestion enables one, as it 
were, to steal or slip away with ease by night and in 
darkness that fairest of princesses, La Volonte, or the 
Will. 

For he who wills to be equable and indifferent to the 
small and involuntary annoyances, teasing memories, 
irritating trifles, which constitute the chief trouble in 
life to most folk, can bring it about, in small measure, 
at first and in due time to greater perfection. And by 



124 HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? 

perseverance this rivulet may to a river run, the river 
fall into a mighty lake, and this in time rush to the 
roaring sea; that is to say, from bearing with indif- 
ference or quite evading attacks of ennui, we may come 
to enduring great afflictions with little suffering. 

Note that I do not say that we can come to bearing 
all the bereavements, losses, and trials of life with ab- 
solute indifference. Herein Montaigne and the Stoics 
of old were well nigh foolish to imagine such an im- 
possible and indeed undesirable ideal. But it may be 
that two men are afflicted by the same domestic loss, 
and one with a weak nature is well nigh crushed by it, 
gives himself up to endless weeping and perhaps never 
recovers from it, while another with quite as deep feel- 
ings, but far wiser, rallies, and by vigorous exertion 
makes the grief a stimulus to exertion, so that while 
the former is demoralized, the latter is strengthened. 
There is an habitual state of mind by which a man 
while knowing his losses fully can endure them better 
than others, and this endurance will be greatest in him 
who has already cultivated it assiduously in minor 
matters. He who has swam in the river can swim in 
the sea; he who can hear a door bang without starting 
can listen to a cannon without jumping. 

The method which I have described in this book will 
enable any person gifted with perseverance to make an 
equable or calm state of mind habitual, moderately at 
first, more so by practice. And when this is attained 
the experimenter can progress rapidly in the path. It 
is precisely the same as in learning a minor art, the 
pupil who can design a pattern (which corresponds to 
Foresight or plan), only requires, as in wood-carving 
or repousse ? to be trained by very easy process to be- 



LAST WORDS 125 

come familiar with the use and feel of the tools, after 
which all that remains to be done is to keep on at what 
the pupil can do without the least difficulty. Well be- 
gun and well run in the end will be well done. 

But glorious and marvelous is the power of him who 
has habituated himself by easy exercise of Will to 
brush away the minor, meaningless and petty cares of 
life, such as, however, prey on most of us; for unto 
him great griefs are no harder to endure than the getting 
a coat splashed is to an ordinary man. 













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